Another Anniversary...

Seven years ago today I lost my father to the West Nile virus. I lost my mother when I was seventeen. I was crushed by both unexpected deaths, but as I have grown older... have come to appreciate God not making me watch both of them suffer for years, forget who they were or who I was. They both went quickly and both without years of pain or suffering. The only ones left to suffer were us...I'll take that bullet for both of them ANY day. My dad was as healthy as you could imagine at the age of 77. A vibrant and sharp man... who just got bit by a mosquito. The ten days he was ill with the virus are embedded in my memory forever. The virus took my only remaining parent from me but brought me, my sister and brother closer together than we had ever been and where we remain today . He was an amazing man and a terrific father. As I go to more and more funerals of my friend's parents who have suffered and battled with illnesses for years and years...draining every one's energy, resources and mental well being...I realize that I am the lucky one. My parents went quickly and spared us from watching their demise with a calendar but with watching it with a wrist watch . My father joined the navy at the age of 16 with his parent's forged signature by his brother...he said he had a lot of nice clothes back then and his brother knew he could keep them if my dad joined the service . He came home and met my mother, worked blue collar jobs all his life to provide us with the wonderful upbringing we all so fortunately had. He is up in Heaven with my mother today, looking down on all of us smiling and saying that us kids are doing okay...he knew we would. He is my hero and he is my father. He is missed today as much as he was eight years ago. Maybe even more. I love my parents and the way they instilled "doing the right thing" in me...I hope I make them proud because I am very proud to have been blessed with two of the greatest parents a kid could ever dream of . I still dream about them both and they are the sweetest dreams I ever have .