Where the heck have two years gone!! A little over two years ago we were travelling home for my 104 year old grandmother’s funeral. In a few days from now, it’ll be two years since we made the same trek for my dads funeral.
Dad decided to be cremated.
The crematorium was at the edge of town, along the St. Mary’s River. It had snowed and the trees were covered and it was cold! The serenity of the location was incredible! It was so quiet that you could hear the snow crunch beneath your feet.
He always told us that if we buried him in anything but a pine box, that he would come back and haunt us. My experience told me that he’d find a way. I had a colleague who made bowls from reclaimed wood and a few years before dad died, I asked him if he could make me an urn. What could be less expensive than reclaimed wood!! Needless to say, dad approved.
Even though I talked to him frequently, Dad didn’t call me often. My birthday, anniversary and Groundhog Day! I think I’ll start celebrating Groundhog Day with a party in his honour!
Some days it’s still hard to believe that he’s gone. I can think of reasons almost every day to call him and have questions to ask that I know he’ll have the answer to.
We watch 401 Heavy Rescue and I know that with his trucking and insurance adjuster background, he would love to watch it. He used to watch Ice Road Truckers, apparently he did that for a winter after he moved to Canada! He told a story of working in the gold mines in Timmins with his brother-in-law and decided that learning English was important because it meant a better job, one that didn’t involve rats!!! He was full of surprises and seriously did a little of everything!
Mom share this picture with me today snd I thought I’d share it here. Dad wasn’t a big fisherman but he caught this fish in the Mackinaw area on a fishing excursion (just another excuse to get away with the boys and drink beer) he had this one mounted and it hung in the family room for years!
I’ve always heard people say that they miss family members everyday and I never understood how that was possible until dad died! I think about him every day! I have a glass block of the fortress in his hometown where he used to spend his days not going to school, a picture of his mother’s homestead in Switzerland where we still have family living and making cheese and Wiarton Willy on the shelf in our living room!
I am left with memories of a life well lived and enjoyed and a hope that I will see him again (although hopefully not too soon).
I love you and miss you Dad.
And by the way, Willie did not see his shadow this year, so it’s an early spring!
