Remembering Daddy

Today, the 4th of July 2011, marks the 3 year anniversary of my father's passing. As I sit here thinking about him, the things that come up the most are the times filled with laughter. He and I liked to laugh A LOT. We had the same sense of humor and liked to joke around. He liked teasing people and I liked laughing at it. He had a laugh unlike any other. I loved to hear it. It was soothing to me. I would look up a joke prior to calling him, just so I could hear him laugh.
The last time I saw him was July 1, 2008. It was a Tuesday night. Mom was still in the hospital, but she was on the mend and things were looking up for the first time. It had been a pretty intense week. We thought were going to lose mom at least 3 times. Dad was the most stressed I had ever seen him. He hadn't left her side for a second while she had been in the hospital. Jonathan was 2.5 months old and due to mom's weakened immune system condition I couldn't take him up to the hospital, so I had to wait until Michael got home from work before I could go see them.
Now that things were getting better with mom, my thoughts had shifted to dad this particular day. I kept thinking, I needed to cheer him up, I needed to hear him laugh!! I hadn't come up with anything by the time Michael had come home, and as I started to leave, it came to me! I ran back to the computer and I downloaded from ITunes the audio CD of one of my favorite comedian's, Brian Regan. I had told dad about him before, but he had never seen or heard his act.
When I got to the hospital I picked up some snacks for the 3 of us and ran up to their room! I was so happy to see both of them sitting up and smiling. It was such a relief from the days past. We sat around and chatted for a while. Then I popped the in CD! As I suspected, Dad laughed and laughed, so did mom, by the way! They both loved it. He actually fell out of his chair once he was laughing so hard. Mom kept shhhing him, since we were after all in the hospital, but she would even be giggling through her shhhes! The whole experience made me happy and made my soul glad. To see both my parents, laughing and carrying on amidst such difficult times is exactly who they were and is exactly who they taught me to be. 

Here are some of my favorite laughing photo's...

Amy and I are collecting stories/memories of mom and dad to share with our children when they get older. If you would like to share a story with us, we would be more than appreciative!

Here are a couple of Brian Regan video's from YouTube. I could have posted a million more, look him up for a good laugh! I hope you enjoy him as much as we did and still do...