Dad passed away this past Saturday, February 22 at 10:44.
I'd been taking care of him these past few years. I was with him when he passed.
The past few years had been hard. He'd been getting weaker and his cognition worse. But we found some fun to have this past year.
In early summer, I took a week off and loaded him in the truck each day. We went to my office BBQ out at DeLavega, ate some Betty burgers, checked the surf and drove through the neigborhoods he knew as a boy.
Mom had this picture tacked to her bulletin board in the office. It's a shot from the first day of school at B-40 in 1989 that ran on the front page of the Sentinel. He loved to talk to litle kids. In fact, he would have walked with me on my first days at B-40 from our house on Berkeley Way.
As a kid at Westlake, I'd often get asked, "what did we learn at school today?". I always found that hard since he was in the classroom across the hall and pretty much knew what I'd been taught. I've been thinking about that question the past few days.
I think the biggest learning I've taken away is how to be a man. After all, I watched Dad take care of his father and then it was my turn.
Some other nice posts about Dad. https://www.facebook.com/joni.reynolds.10/posts/10203465871115844https://www.facebook.com/teddi.mcmillanpettee/posts/10203217064166715:0
