The passing of my Hero...

[Paisley]

Dan,

My dad also died thursday Sept 30 so, I will join you in your sorrow

Shopgirl, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[DanielJones]

Thanks you folks again for your heartfelt responses. Yes, this is a tough time, but at the same time it is a huge relief. He suffers no more. We had, in essence, lost our Father to dementia a year ago, the many we knew & grew up with was gone. When I did visit him at his care facility most of his conversations were all over the board and sometimes he spoke of people he just saw, and they had been gone for some time. I would try very hard to jog his memory and about half the time it would work. I would manage to get him to talk about his past which always brought a reminiscent smile to his face. But, I would say that in the last four months you couldn't understand what he was speaking of. It was either all over the board or at a mumbled whisper.

So his passing is grieved, and I do cry from time to time when going through the photographs to scan. But in the end we sigh a breath of relief that he suffers no more. The hardest part wasn't this phase, it was when he was starting to lose his mind to dementia and he realized it. He would say, "I'm losing my mind aren't I?" and, "Where did my nice life go?". Those moments were more devastating and crushing then when he was asleep his last fourteen days. As far as remembering the good times, there were so many that I can't count them. That is how good he was to me. We will celebrate his life in his stories. Even he would find most of this humorous, such was his sense of humor, that he fortunately passed on to me. So we celebrate with laughter.
Our family will be having a memorial get together with friends & family to remember He & our Mother. I am going through all their photographs to scan them and then I will put together a photo collage to put on a DVD to play at the celebration of their lives. I fortunately have very few sad memories of my family. They are all good ones.

Shopgirl, it sound like your Father too had a full measure of life. Me condolences to you and your family. The grieving for the loss of our loved ones is part of the process of our lives. But never forget to celebrate his life. Share the stories at his memorial so that he may live on in you and others. I shall raise a glass in his honor as well. He is better now, and suffers no more. I will be sure to send you a PM.

Again, thank you all for allowing me to share my grief, my joy and some of my Father with you. This allows him to live on beyond myself.

Cheers.

Dan

 

[Lola Getz]

DanielJones and Shopgirl, I am so sorry! That is an awful blow even when it is not surprising. My thoughts are with you both!

 

[BLACKCLOUD]

My condolences