February 13, 1988

Me and my sister lost our dad and our mom lost her husband. That morning will be etched in my head forever. We woke up as usual on the weekends and my dad like always, insisted that we eat his delish breakfast before we go about our day. After Breakfast my mom took me to work. I had to stop at Walgreens to get some foundation and my mom gave me money for it and like usual INSISTED I come back out and give her the change. I came out and my mom was gone, weird, so I went to the next door where I work. Im not sure how long the time frame was but it couldnt have been even a 1/2 hour before my boss, JOHN, came to me and said Mary, you need to go home, Art will drive you home. I was soo excited as it was the day before my 17th birthday party and 1 week after my birthday, I really thought oh my gosh they bought me a car and I told Art, when we turn this corner I bet I see a shiny cute car with a big bow on it!!! We laughed and turned the corner and the laughter stopped. Where I thought my car would be was a fire truck and ambulance and police cars. I walked in the house and it actually was unusually quiet, I went to wear I saw the commotion(the back yard) where I saw the most HORRIFIC site I will ever lay eyes on. It was my dad laying on the porch being worked on by paramedics, his eyes were open but he wasnt there. I screamed BLOODY loud and a police officer came to me and I ran into the kitchen and tried to hide behind the fridge, my mom and sister came out and my mom was crying.. The ambulance took him to the hospital.. Im honestly not sure how me or my sister got to the hospital but we all ended up there and were sitting in this TINY hot room off of the ER for what seemed like a hundred hours but was probably no more than 20-30 minutes. A DR. and nurse walked in and sat down and went over what they had been doing and things of that nature and that is when my mom said, "Dr. what are you saying?" He said Ron is dead, im sorry.. We cried and cried and cried. They told us we could go see him in a few minutes. We walked into his room and he was laying there sooo peacefully. My dad was quite the joker and while we were hoping this would be another of his jokes, it just wasnt.. It was for good and for real. Right at that moment life changed for me, Ronni and my mom. I was sick with heartbrokeness and nausiated like you cannot imagine. We all went home, cried some more accepted tons of phone calls, neighbors and visits from friends. The next morning was Valentines day and while we should have been exchanging gifts (every holiday was a big deal to my parents, LOL we got a cute thing for everything) was not such a wonderful day. Ronni and I went with a family friend to pick up some relatives from the airport, after we went to the viewing. I kept my eyes shut walking in hoping, just hoping that if I shut my eyes It wouldnt be happening. We had the viewing, then his company had a memorial service at their office, which was beautiful. Later we traveled to Utah for his funeral which was funny and moving all at the same time. Thus, started our new life. I miss him, even more now than 19 years ago when it happened. I miss him everytime I have had a baby, I miss him everytime I see something in the kids that reminds me of him, I miss him now that my baby is going into the ARmy. Im sure he would LOVE to give Nick all kinds of info about the Army, LOL I just miss him. Love you Dad!!