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Thinking about my Dad...
Jan. 27th, 2017 01:35 pmYesterday was Dad's birthday -- he would have been 88.
Back in November, before Thanksgiving, I'd been looking for a small flag with a CUBs logo; we were planning a trip north to visit Husband's aunt, and I thought if I could find a CUBS flag we could stop by the cemetery and I'd put it in the flower holder by his marker. Just a small flag, about the size of the American flags that get placed by veterans' graves on Memorial Day -- but I couldn't find any. Since we were headed up to the suburbs, I figured it would be fairly easy to find suitable CUBs memorabilia...
No such luck. We went to a specialty store, and I asked; apparently, the small flags that I was thinking about were temporarily out of production.... but the store owner mentioned that a LOT of people were buying CUBs World Series decals and putting THOSE on headstones of their departeds. So I picked up a couple of the decals, and we headed south on Sunday. On the way, I started thinking... and when we got to the cemetery, we placed the decal on Dad's marker without removing the backing and took a picture so we could show Mom what it looked like. Then we headed to Mom's house, gave her the decal and showed her the picture, and left the decision up to her -- she thought it was an excellent idea, but better to wait for Spring. So we visited and discussed plans for Thanksgiving, etc.
Anyway, last night I was clearing the end table in the living room and found about a dozen photos from I'm pretty sure the summer of 2007 that had Dad (and Mom) in them. He looked good; he was independently mobile (might have had a cane, though I don't remember one), smiling and his normal easy-going self and I remember he was still able to drive at that point -- he hadn't suffered any of the micro-strokes yet -- and I started tearing up, because Dad in 2007 would have been over the moon about the CUBs, and why couldn't they have won in 2007 when he'd still been with us, and able to appreciate it?
I miss Dad. I'm tearing up now, just writing about it.
Back in November, before Thanksgiving, I'd been looking for a small flag with a CUBs logo; we were planning a trip north to visit Husband's aunt, and I thought if I could find a CUBS flag we could stop by the cemetery and I'd put it in the flower holder by his marker. Just a small flag, about the size of the American flags that get placed by veterans' graves on Memorial Day -- but I couldn't find any. Since we were headed up to the suburbs, I figured it would be fairly easy to find suitable CUBs memorabilia...
No such luck. We went to a specialty store, and I asked; apparently, the small flags that I was thinking about were temporarily out of production.... but the store owner mentioned that a LOT of people were buying CUBs World Series decals and putting THOSE on headstones of their departeds. So I picked up a couple of the decals, and we headed south on Sunday. On the way, I started thinking... and when we got to the cemetery, we placed the decal on Dad's marker without removing the backing and took a picture so we could show Mom what it looked like. Then we headed to Mom's house, gave her the decal and showed her the picture, and left the decision up to her -- she thought it was an excellent idea, but better to wait for Spring. So we visited and discussed plans for Thanksgiving, etc.
Anyway, last night I was clearing the end table in the living room and found about a dozen photos from I'm pretty sure the summer of 2007 that had Dad (and Mom) in them. He looked good; he was independently mobile (might have had a cane, though I don't remember one), smiling and his normal easy-going self and I remember he was still able to drive at that point -- he hadn't suffered any of the micro-strokes yet -- and I started tearing up, because Dad in 2007 would have been over the moon about the CUBs, and why couldn't they have won in 2007 when he'd still been with us, and able to appreciate it?
I miss Dad. I'm tearing up now, just writing about it.
