This year has been the crappiest year of my entire life. I think during the past 9 months, I have probably shed the same amount of, if not more, tears that I have shed during my whole 34 years on this Earth. Yesterday was my dad's birthday. The first birthday that I've not been able to call or text him to wish him a "Happy Birthday". The first birthday that I didn't go searching (even though I did) for a birthday card and then accidentally send it to Dad late. I wanted to be able to enjoy my dad's birthday and not morn it.
Even though I didn't buy a card for my dad, I still looked. I wanted to find the one that I would have sent and take a picture of it. I always would try to find him a Peanuts birthday card because he loved Peanuts. Generally I would look for one that had Lucy on it since I'm Lucy, but this year there were no Peanuts birthday cards at Walmart for a Dad.
When I got up yesterday, I posted this picture of my dad on Facebook and wished him a happy first birthday in Heaven. While Michael and I were playing and cleaning the house, we decided to play Beach Boys because that was my dad's favorite band. Michael seemed to like it for a little while because he was dancing a little bit to it. I'm sure Dad was looking down and smiling.
I decided that throughout the day I would share different pictures of Dad and some stories that I knew. This is Dad at 6 months old. He was raised on the family farm in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, only an hour away from where I live right now, and grew up in a pre-civil war house.
There's a funny story about this little toy tractor. Dad took this tractor to his Nana's house which was across the street from his house and drove it into their inground pool. The pool was not filled with water and my dad came out of it unharmed! My dad is the one driving the tractor and pulling my uncle.
Here's my dad in one of his work uniforms when he lived in Morgantown, WV and was going to WVU. Something that Dad and I have in common is that it took both of us 5 years to earn our 4 year degrees at WVU.
If you don't know by now, my family loves Disney. This was from my first Disney vacation back in 1989 and what makes this picture special is that my dad's nickname was Chip. So, here's Chip and Chip! During one of our visits earlier this year we were watching video that I took from our recent trip to Walt Disney World, Dad told me that he always loved going to Epcot. Dad was a very nerdy person and is the reason that Jon and him got a long so well. I think one of his co-workers referred to him as a nerd's nerd. A few months ago we watched the PBS documentary of Walt Disney and I really believe that if they had met, they would have been great friends. Did you know that Walt died in his 60's? Yesterday would have been Dad's 62nd birthday.
Dad loved being a grandfather, just so sad he only got to enjoy 5 years of it. My nephew, Jasper, and Michael loved playing with Granddad. He was nothing but a big kid himself. He loved getting down on the ground and play with them. His face would just light up when Michael would come into the room.
I had decided that for dinner we would eat all of Dad's favorites, well not all of them - the guy liked to eat. I made meatloaf, corn, mashed potatoes, lima beans, and Velveeta shells n cheese. Dad loved his Velveeta cheese sandwiches and that's why I made the shells n cheese. My brother came over to enjoy dinner and honor our dad. We didn't get to eat our dessert, actually I need to finish making it. Dad loved Boston Cream pie so I was going to make a Boston Cream poke cake. I didn't make it ahead of time and didn't realize I needed to let it chill in the fridge for a few hours. I'll finish it to have it for dessert tonight.
Basically, we celebrated my dad's life on his special day. I think everyone should do this and I will be doing this every year from now on.
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