[8Up]

Spent last weekend in Colorado with my family remembering my father. We scattered his ashes on my parents mountain property west of Colorado Springs. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with writing the eulogy. This is what I came up with. I only read the last paragraph but I gave everyone the opportunity to read it all.

Fathers wear many hats in life, guide, teacher and mentor. Our dad taught me a lot of things. How to throw a baseball, how to fish, the rules of basketball, how to ride a bike, how to drive, How to love your Mom. But the most important thing he taught me was the ‘Love of a father’. I remember wondering when I was a teenager, why he put up with some of the garbage he put up with from us kids. We would do things that made him pretty mad at times. But what it was, was the ‘love of a father’. We hear about it in Church. God (The Father) loves us because we are his children, but I never fully understood what that meant until I had my own kids. Parents always want better for their kids. A better life, a better job, a better education. Because kids have the opportunity to be better people than we were. We just have to show them how and love them. I know that no matter what they do, I will still love my children unconditionally. I learned that from Dad. No matter what any of us did, even when he didn’t like us, Dad still loved us.
When I was about 40 I called up Dad and I said “You were right”. He laughed and asked “about what”? I said “Pretty much everything you told me from the time I was 10 up to 25.” He laughed and said something to the effect of ‘I wasn’t trying to be ‘right’, I was just being a father’.
I really have no loose ends when it comes to my relationship with Dad. We went to baseball games together, he took me to little league practice. We bought a corvette together and worked on it together. We drank a beer together.
I know grown men whose father has never told them that he loved them. My dad told me he loved me all the time. He told me he was proud of me several times. He told me how he was always so proud to be able to tell people that his son was a Marine. Even though we haven’t been very close for many years now, I try to live my life so that Dad would be proud of the man I am.

The last time I saw Dad, which was June of this year he didn’t know who I was. His exact words were, “I cant remember your name, but Ill never forget your face.” Well Dad, Ill never forget your face either.
And now we do what has to be done with all good men, we have to give him back to God, with thanks for letting us borrow him for too short a time.
Goodbye Dad. I love you, and I miss you. Hug Grandma and Grandpa for me.