My Last Visit with Dad

This is my dad. I took this photo yesterday morning when I was visiting my parents. Dad drove me up to the stone yard in this cute little “gator” of his.

First we drove up to the stone yard and around back, past several old piles of stone laying around here and there among tall grasses. (My parents have a stone business, so there were always lots of piles of stone in the yard.) As we drove past each pile, he pointed out how he wanted to get it all cleaned up so it could be mowed. He seemed a bit irritated with the mess. I said “gee, you had years to clean this stuff up,” to which he replied, “no, I was always too busy working on Sidney…” and as soon as he said that, I thought back to all the years when he was traveling back and forth between his two business locations. He had a goal for himself and the business — and he achieved what he wanted in life, always with my mom working just as hard, right by his side.

We drove up the back road and then back down to the pond where he wanted to show me some beautiful new purple flowers that he’d just discovered were blooming around the pond. He wanted me to see them, wanted to share their beauty with someone, and I was the lucky one to have that moment with him.

I got off the gator and took a few photos of the flowers, picked one, then decided I should take his picture, too. He said, “no, don’t take the photo from the front, you’ll have the ugly windshield in the photo. Come around to the side.” So I did. He doesn’t look like he’s smiling too much in the photo, but I believe he was pretty content at that moment.

In memory of my dad on the day he left us, Sunday, September 25, 2016.