Mon Feb 4 08:23:57 2002
They found his body in his apartment this morning. Causes are not known yet, but he was very ill (remember when he was visiting last year and he was in the hospital) and I'm not surprised this has happened, although I didn't expect it so soon.
He was 65.
I never knew him as he really was-- he had his first of two serious strokes when I was only a few months old, radically changing his personality-- but I still loved him, for all his faults. In the last few years of his life he was not coping very well with things-- his apartment had gotten extremely messy and dirty, and he was physically much more limited than he had ever been, and he couldn't concentrate on things. I talked to him just yesterday and he didn't sound any different than he usually did-- we talked about the same things we always do, and he said he'd phone me again next week, as he always did.
But even though my last memory of him was a very weak old man sitting in my apartment having dinner with me, that's not how I'll remember him.
I'll remember him from the pictures I have of him in his naval uniform, and the one where he looked the happiest I'd ever seen him, looking out from the cockpit of a T-33 fighter jet, without a care in the world.
I have no idea if there is a life after death, and I don't even think it's very likely. Nevertheless, I hope that somewhere, somehow, he's back in that cockpit, flying to a place very much like the Bermuda beaches he told me about.
He was my father.
Mon Feb 4 08:45:04 2002
I believe in life after death. I believe there is a lot of evidence to show that conciousness goes on after the brain is clinically deceased.
I just ate at my parents house last night, and I couldn't imagine the horror your going through. My parents have always been there, not having one or more of them there anymore would be devastating for me.
Don't be afraid to cry about this Jeremy, It may help. :(
Mon Feb 4 09:24:07 2002
Mon Feb 4 09:29:32 2002
Mon Feb 4 09:37:58 2002
Where I'm from, death isn't the end, its a new begining.
take care.
Mon Feb 4 09:54:02 2002
Mon Feb 4 13:11:02 2002
Mon Feb 4 14:30:57 2002
Mon Feb 4 18:27:30 2002
Mon Feb 4 18:51:30 2002
Mon Feb 4 19:00:40 2002
My dad is 61 and has been smoking since he was 13, 2 packs a day. I just found out last year, I didn't even know the entire time I lived with him.
Hearing about your loss makes his condition (fine, right now) scare me....
Mon Feb 4 20:42:21 2002
I'm sure he's pleased, wherever we go after we pass on, to know that you cared about him so much.
M.
Tue Feb 5 02:44:00 2002
My father was under surgery earlier this week, it was the first time he was under total anestethics.
Everything's fine with him now, but I was quite worried, living at 9 time zones of distance.
I thought a lot lately about death and family and such. I don't know how I'll cope, but I hope you'll find the strength to overcome this.
Again, all my condolences.
(Edited by PaoloM at 6:44 pm on Feb. 4, 2002)
Wed Feb 6 04:54:27 2002
(Edited by Maximus at 10:55 pm on Feb. 5, 2002)
Wed Feb 6 21:58:53 2002
Wed Feb 6 22:01:20 2002
How were the services for your father?
Wed Feb 6 23:39:14 2002
I'm doing OK, I guess-- busy dealing with funeral services and stuff.