My World

Old Guy
November 30, 2007


Fifty one years ago this morning, as I was leaving our "Flat" in SF to go play in a basketball tournament in Watsonville..my Dad called me back up the stairs..I rolled my eyes and went back up to the top of the stairs where my Father was standing and he embraced me and said, very seriously, "I want to wish you good luck, son."

It wasn't have a good game..or have fun....it was a feeling of seriousness that bothered me all day. There was something else going on that was hard to understand, I think now, that he new he'd never see me again in this life. I even got into a fight on the bus coming back from the game with one of my team mates. Something was very troubling to me.

When I got home my Mother had gone to the hospital and my brother Ron was sitting on the stairs.. He told me that my Father had suffered a stroke....a few hours later my Mother came home from the hospital extremely shaken...after another few hours of trying to console her she went into her bedroom to try and get some rest....the phone rang at 6am and I answered it, the doctor was calling from the hospital and said that my Father had just passed away...and not to wake my Mother...I looked over towards her room, she was standing there with tears running down her face saying over and over "NO, NO, NO", and wanted the phone, she stood there unable to control the tears.

This was the saddest day and experience that I have ever gone through. It is very hard to write this but I thought that it should be passed onto you kids. Your Grandfather was the BEST example to me of what a loving husband and father should be, of anyone that I've ever met. My Mother and Father had a great, loving marriage.

A few weeks before this day my Father looked at me and said.."You know, if I die tomorrow I'll be a happy man because I have had a great life with a wonderful family." I thought it odd that he would say that so seriously...looking back at it, I have no doubt that he sensed that he wasn't going to be here much longer.

I think that Father in Heaven knew of the loving nature of my Father and allowed him to have that knowledge so that he could say goodbye to his family...I never mentioned any of this to my mother or my brothers so I can't know of anything that they felt in their association with my father.

Thankfully, receiving the gospel and the understanding of our relationship with Father in Heaven and between us in our family, I am comforted and look forward to seeing him and my Mother again.

I know that my Dad would have loved each of you as much as I do and you would've enjoyed him as well.