Precisely to the degree that you have loved something: a house, a woman,(a father) a bird, a tree, anything at all, you are punished by time.  John Engels

Daddy died 2 1/2 years ago.  Still, it is so hard to believe he is gone.

Daddy and Mother taught me about love.  And I knew they loved me in a deep and real way.  My sister, Wendy, and I told him he smelled like cookies – warm, homey and delicious!

Daddy could have had an entertaining conversation with a lamp post and never met a stranger. A few years ago, he joined me on a business trip to California for a week.  He had always wanted to go there.  While I worked, he stayed at the hotel – never venturing away and yet perfectly content. Each day after I returned from work, he told me about enjoying the views out the window, the orange trees heavy with their fruit, the workers laboring to provide harvest and crops, the sun rising and falling.

Just before we left the hotel and at the end of the stay, he excused himself and said he had something to do. Turns out he had become the best friend and counselor of every housekeeper, cook, janitor, desk clerk, gardener, waitress and waiter in the entire place.  So he had to say goodbye and thank them all personally.

Daddy just understood what it means to be spiritual.  Once I asked him to tell me the meaning of life.  And he smiled and said he did not know but he just believed that he had been or always tried to be, where God wanted him to be. It was one of the most profound statements I have ever heard. And said with such humbleness, so typical of him, but yet in such complete confidence.

I loved the quote from John Engels.  Time does punish us because eventually we lose those we love to death (ours or theirs).  But yet, Daddy will always be with me.  In my heart and in my soul. Throughout the ages, I will love him still.