Well, it’s been about 5 days now and I guess I’ve gotten to the point where I can write about losing my dad now. He was a fighter. Even after being placed on dialysis almost 10 years ago, he never lost his sense of humor. He called going to dialysis, “Going to work.” And that’s what he did. My dad was a working man. But he also took whatever time was necessary to make sure his family was the priority. There are so many memories about growing up that I could sit here and list them all day long. I could tell you about how my dad would help me fold and roll newspapers in the morning EVERY SINGLE morning before he went to his own business and got things rolling there as well. He would then drive my sister and myself 20 miles to private school and pick us up in the evenings. We couldn’t afford those great schools that we attended but somehow, he made a way. He really gave me a great work ethic and it wasn’t that he would sit me down and tell me how important working was. No, he was more of a man that would “Show” rather than a man that would “Tell.” When I had my Limousine service, he would come over in the mornings and help me wash them, fill them up with gas, and he would even fill in as a driver if he thought it would help me. When I say that he would do ANYTHING for the family, I mean ANYTHING! He and my mom were married for well over 50 years and until his last day, he smiled, laughed, told stories, and let us know that he loved us very much.

I know that we pretty much talk about EVERYTHING that is going on in our lives around here but I knew that if I started to talk about this, I would just end up crying my eyes out on the radio and I have chosen, at least up to this point, to not talk about this. Losing a parent is like losing a body part. You have lived your entire life with that person and one day, they are just gone. And there is nothing that I can say that will make it any better. People grieve in so many different ways. No ones way is necessarily any better or worse than anyone else’s. They are just different.

Daddy, I love you and I miss you beyond words.