Reflections of my Pops

Today would have been my Dad’s 83rd birthday…

We lost him to cancer this past June.  Hardest thing ever ~ watching him die.  Cancer is a horrible, evil and painful disease.  What my entire family went through during that time will be forever etched in our memories.

But rather than focus on his death and the terrible sense of loss that goes along with it, I want to focus on my Dad’s life, so here are a few reflections of my Pops…

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This is one of my all-time favorite photos of him.  It was a beautiful, perfect, summer day spent at my favorite place in Minnesota ~ Lake Superior.  Dad was skipping rocks.  The entire shoreline is littered with them, as you can see.  And that’s my daughter in the background wading in the water.  She’s 19 now so this photo is from quite a while ago, but I still remember the day.  It was a good day.  A happy time.  And my Dad looks handsome.  ♥~

Where as the above photo was of my Dad on a warm summer day…. here is one taken during the glory of winter.  It’s also one of my favorite photos of him.  One thing about living in Minnesnowta is it SNOWS.  Sometimes a lot!  And my Dad always took such good care of clearing his walkways whenever it snowed.  He was actually quite the “ants in his pants” about it!  His hair matches the snow.  ♥   He had such a gorgeous head of hair…~

Omygosh if there is one thing I’ll always remember the most about my Dad… it’s that he LOVED riding bicycle!  He would ride miles and miles a day, all around the city ~  through downtown Minneapolis along Nicollet Avenue.  He was a common fixture around town riding his bike and people even recognized him.  He was a friendly fellow with a bright, wonderful smile.  ♥~

He’s not exactly “smiling” here, but I adore this silly expression on his face!  This picture was taken on one of his birthdays some years ago.  Clearly he is being silly about the new hat and gloves he received.  And see how he’s in his pajamas?  That is another thing about my Dad ~ whenever he was at home and not planning on going out anywhere, he was always in his jammies.  As my Mom and I were going through some of his things a few months ago, I asked for a couple sets of his jammies that we came across.  I’m wearing them as I write this.  ♥~

Here is another precious photo.  This was taken at my daughter’s graduation in 2010.  My Dad was very involved in my daughter’s life.  He was such a good Papa.  Over the years as she was growing up, he rarely missed a program, concert or recital of hers.  ♥~

My adorable parents being cute and cozy on my brother’s couch.  They were married for 52 years.  ♥~

As this is our first year without him on his birthday, we were talking about what ~ if anything, we should do to remember him today.  I thought it’d be nice to have a ham dinner because my Dad loved ham.  Ew… ham = definitely not one of my faves, but I’d be willing to suffer through it in honor of him.  🙂  But after going over it with my Mom the other day, we decided on White Castles.  Yep, good ol’ gut bombs, as we call them.  As a young child, some of my earliest memories of times/activities spent being with my Dad are of going to White Castle and then to the park afterward to feed the squirrels.  So I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to go get some gut bombs in honor of my Dad’s birthday.  Haha!  I’ll probably regret it later!~

Thank you for joining me here during my reflections of my Pops today.  I have one more thing to share.  It may seem out of place among the warm and fuzzy above dialog, but trust me …it isn’t.  My Dad was a sci fi freak!  Growing up, we were inundated with all things sci fi and it has stuck with us.  Thanks Pops, for making us freaks too…  😀

 

Cherish every moment that you have with the ones you love ♥