One Year Ago...

One year ago, on October 19th, I said goodbye to my dad after a 22 month battle of colon cancer. It is so hard for me to believe that it has been a year since we talked, laughed, and hugged each other. There are still so many times that I need to pick up the phone to call him. To tell him about Aaron's baseball game, to ask him a cooking or finance question, or just to see how his treatment went that day. I never knew what it meant to truly miss someone so much that you can hardly stand it, and unfortunatly, I know what that is like now. It is a missing and a longing for a person so strong that sometimes you can barely shake it. But, I take Dad's words of wisdom to heart, when he would tell me to just pull myself up by my bootstraps and deal with it. And so I have, as much as I know how to do.

This picture was taken in August of '10, a little more than 2 months before he passed. Me, dad and Jenny took a trip to Brookville Lake for a few days to rest and relax together. It was a trip full of laughter and lots of tears, we knew his health was beginning to fail, but it is a time I will cherish forever. He was the most loving, and understanding dad that a girl could ever want in this world, and I know I will love and miss him all of my days. I know that we will be reunited in Heaven one day, where I know he is sitting on one of Heaven's most beautiful beaches waiting for me. I know he will have so many stories to tell, as Dad always did, and I can't wait to hear each and every one.

If you have your speakers on, the song playing is one that brings back great memories of our trips to Put in Bay. I love you forever, Dad.