It will be five years at the end of December since Dad passed away. There's so much he hasn't been here for - my wedding, buying my first house, and most notably, the birth of Claire. Of course there are a million other times that I wished he was here as well.
I hadn't heard the song "Everything I Own" by David Gates until after Dad was gone, and to be honest I can't really say for sure why I listen to it sometimes when I know it will make me miss him more. Yes, it makes me sad, but I guess maybe it's just the idea that I identify with, so I listen anyway.
I realize my thoughts are pretty jumbled and incomplete at the moment, but I wanted to post something anyway. My dad had his faults of course, but he was the best man I've known, and hopefully those of you reading this who knew him have good memories to look back on.
Deer hunting season has come and gone for me this year. For many years I couldn't bring myself to go out hunting without Dad, but I've gone two out of the past three years now, and I'll continue to go I believe. If my kids want to learn to hunt, I'll teach them like Dad taught me.
I talk to Claire about her grandpa sometimes, and I like to think that she'll grow up knowing him as much as she can from my stories and pictures we show her. Maybe if I'm really lucky she'll think I'm at least a fraction of the father mine was.
