So I had to go back there and experience again the series of amazing and heart-tugging black & white vignettes that came after…climaxing, as it were, with an explosion of color and love…”Color Guard”. Beautiful.
April 25, 2017 at 8:55 pm
Bill G
Blessed be.
April 25, 2017 at 9:44 pm
Swansonic
My parents are with me all the time too.
Raising a glass to those who still guide us even if it is more subtle now….
Mine passed in ’07. Some days it hurts so bad to think about him. Lost my Mom in 04. I think I would KILL to hear her call me her pet name for me.
If one or both of your folks are still around, make sure you hug ’em and tell ’em you love ’em every chance you get.
April 26, 2017 at 2:09 am
JSStryker
Lost my dad in ’02 and my mom in ’15 and there isn’t a day I don’t think of each of them. Sometimes I swear one or the other or both are standing in my apartment watching me because I can smell his aftershave or her perfume.
April 26, 2017 at 11:25 am
Old Codger
The last couple of years of her life, my Mom’s Mom lived with my folks. For years after she passed, my dad swore he smelled her perfume in the room she slept in.
OT, Things are getting good at GW main story. Loved the Bailiff’s replies (both). Especially liked the way Robert? I am SSSOOOOOOO bad with names) shut the judge down.
April 26, 2017 at 2:14 pm
John
Because they have those kind of memories worth keeping.
Some of us aren’t so lucky.
April 25, 2017 at 10:55 pm
WayneM
I think I’m allergic to this one… My eyes are kinda watery and stuff.
April 25, 2017 at 11:02 pm
Noelegy
I marked a milestone of my own today: I listened to one of my mom’s voicemails. I have six of them saved on my phone. She died in December 2015.
April 26, 2017 at 2:18 pm
John
It’s interesting.
What we see fades with time, but a voice is somehow totally unique.
So much so that when I hear a voice somewhat similar I do a “double take” before it sinks in that the new voice’s owner is not the one I’m looking for.
April 25, 2017 at 11:12 pm
maybe just anonymous this time,if that's okay
You have those moments the rest of your life,I think.I had one the other day replacing a light fixture and switches in my parents’ old house.They worked fine when I did the repair,but cut off suddenly and wouldn’t work at all.I said,’Still messing with me,aren’t you?'(Dad always loved a good prank at my expense)The lights came on,and have worked flawlessly ever since.It happens all the time,after more than 8 years .The tales I could tell you…But I’d miss things like that terribly if they didn’t happen.
April 25, 2017 at 11:22 pm
Jim
Melancholy.
My best friend is in chemo at the moment (literally at the moment, the overnight drip started an hour ago).
Dad had been around this great old world – Korea, Nam, Middle East. I wish we could still talk current events. He had a stroke the week before 9-11, and our last conversation before the second stroke took his speech center was how frustrated was that he wouldn’t be able to help. He was a life long – “yellow dog” Democrat, but I never heard him express a liberal opinion (excepting one bit of naive yearning for the VAT after coming back from Germany), but I’ve always wondered if that could have survived Kerry.
I was on a plane to LA to meet the friend currently in chemo on November 5, 2009. When we landed, my seatmate was getting a call about Fort Hood. My calls were that Mom had been rushed to the hospital with a blood clot and had passed not long after I got into the air.
My friend’s hospital room has a picture of Yosemite that reminded her of her mother…
Godspeed, Chris, our friend.
April 25, 2017 at 11:25 pm
Chris Muir
They are all here,Eternity envies them.
April 25, 2017 at 11:27 pm
Ozymandias
They live in our hearts forever
April 25, 2017 at 11:31 pm
GaryS
Hit me hard when it happened and kind of like seeing Wade even as a ghost.
Lost my father in law in February of 01 and my mom in August of that year both to cancer.
Then my better half and light of my life in October of 13 and then 13 months to the day I lost my wife getting a call from my brother saying he was having trouble getting hold of Dad and he wasn’t picking up the phone and living only 5 minutes away being the one to find him.
Call it coincidence but they do visit and influence us.
April 25, 2017 at 11:47 pm
Interventor
Lost my dad in 1998. Starving in the stalags shortened his life. Lost my mom last month. One stubborn little red head. Nearly wore out the Grim Reaper.
April 26, 2017 at 12:04 am
Pamela
There are times when words fail me and loss is too near the surface.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
Thanks for Wade tonight. Wisdom often comes as a memory or a whisper from the other side.
April 26, 2017 at 2:13 am
Dienekes
Lost my Dad at age 94 12 (!) years ago. WWII vet, US Border Patrol. I now get to hear my grown son channel his Grandpa in what he says, how he says it, and even some of the mannerisms.
He sure set the standard.
April 26, 2017 at 6:32 am
Wood
Lost my dad on Nov 11, 2005 to cancer. Today is his birthday.
April 26, 2017 at 6:39 am
Brasspounder
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your memories. I wish that I had asked more questions about my grandparents’ lives and experiences before they departed this plane. My maternal grandfather came to the States when he was a boy, shortly after WWI. His dad was one of the Kaiser’s soldiers and died in a Russian POW camp. My paternal grandfather was in the US Navy during that same war and retained his love for the sea service his entire life. I have a written collection of reminisces from conversations with my parents, and dearly wish that I had done the same for the generation before.
April 26, 2017 at 8:06 am
Mort
I lost my mom in 97, and my dad in 02, we had our
trials, and there are many things I wish I had said
or done, or not said or done; for both of them, the first
anniversary of their passing was difficult.
I choose to believe in the ‘afterlife’, as existence out side
of the body has been proven to me…my mother was with
me in my truck, all the way to the hospital, after I was notified
of her passing.
My dad a WWII vet developed alzheimers, and lasted 5 miserable
years.
So he’s been gone from the earth but not from my heart and mind for going on 25 years…how could I still feel him so strongly? The only answer as Sam told Zed back then, is that his soul lives in mine. Some say there is no after-life. Tell it to my Dad.
April 26, 2017 at 2:48 pm
Pamela
Wade Darlin’ you might want to turn around…
Maybe go check on your Granddaughters.
37 Comments
Hope that means your own loss is getting easier…
Anybody more industrious than me care to look up that anniversary?
July 26th, 2016. No more fences to build
Thank you, thought it might be closer than that and had the host’s Dad whispering to him…it sure had me hearing mine.
So I had to go back there and experience again the series of amazing and heart-tugging black & white vignettes that came after…climaxing, as it were, with an explosion of color and love…”Color Guard”. Beautiful.
Blessed be.
My parents are with me all the time too.
Raising a glass to those who still guide us even if it is more subtle now….
“I hear voices all the time…..” – https://youtu.be/oLCfb54e_kM
Some wimmen deserve gittin’ that last word in.
Sam, as one redhead to another …SUNSCREEN
Sizzzz!
lol!
Missing my dad too. God bless Chris…
Mine passed in ’07. Some days it hurts so bad to think about him. Lost my Mom in 04. I think I would KILL to hear her call me her pet name for me.
If one or both of your folks are still around, make sure you hug ’em and tell ’em you love ’em every chance you get.
Lost my dad in ’02 and my mom in ’15 and there isn’t a day I don’t think of each of them. Sometimes I swear one or the other or both are standing in my apartment watching me because I can smell his aftershave or her perfume.
The last couple of years of her life, my Mom’s Mom lived with my folks. For years after she passed, my dad swore he smelled her perfume in the room she slept in.
I envy all of you.
Why so, Pete?
OT, Things are getting good at GW main story. Loved the Bailiff’s replies (both). Especially liked the way Robert? I am SSSOOOOOOO bad with names) shut the judge down.
Because they have those kind of memories worth keeping.
Some of us aren’t so lucky.
I think I’m allergic to this one… My eyes are kinda watery and stuff.
I marked a milestone of my own today: I listened to one of my mom’s voicemails. I have six of them saved on my phone. She died in December 2015.
It’s interesting.
What we see fades with time, but a voice is somehow totally unique.
So much so that when I hear a voice somewhat similar I do a “double take” before it sinks in that the new voice’s owner is not the one I’m looking for.
You have those moments the rest of your life,I think.I had one the other day replacing a light fixture and switches in my parents’ old house.They worked fine when I did the repair,but cut off suddenly and wouldn’t work at all.I said,’Still messing with me,aren’t you?'(Dad always loved a good prank at my expense)The lights came on,and have worked flawlessly ever since.It happens all the time,after more than 8 years .The tales I could tell you…But I’d miss things like that terribly if they didn’t happen.
Melancholy.
My best friend is in chemo at the moment (literally at the moment, the overnight drip started an hour ago).
Dad had been around this great old world – Korea, Nam, Middle East. I wish we could still talk current events. He had a stroke the week before 9-11, and our last conversation before the second stroke took his speech center was how frustrated was that he wouldn’t be able to help. He was a life long – “yellow dog” Democrat, but I never heard him express a liberal opinion (excepting one bit of naive yearning for the VAT after coming back from Germany), but I’ve always wondered if that could have survived Kerry.
I was on a plane to LA to meet the friend currently in chemo on November 5, 2009. When we landed, my seatmate was getting a call about Fort Hood. My calls were that Mom had been rushed to the hospital with a blood clot and had passed not long after I got into the air.
My friend’s hospital room has a picture of Yosemite that reminded her of her mother…
Godspeed, Chris, our friend.
They are all here,Eternity envies them.
They live in our hearts forever
Hit me hard when it happened and kind of like seeing Wade even as a ghost.
Lost my father in law in February of 01 and my mom in August of that year both to cancer.
Then my better half and light of my life in October of 13 and then 13 months to the day I lost my wife getting a call from my brother saying he was having trouble getting hold of Dad and he wasn’t picking up the phone and living only 5 minutes away being the one to find him.
Call it coincidence but they do visit and influence us.
Lost my dad in 1998. Starving in the stalags shortened his life. Lost my mom last month. One stubborn little red head. Nearly wore out the Grim Reaper.
There are times when words fail me and loss is too near the surface.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
my dad left in 2009 from agent orange. I still hear him. usually “there was an easier way to do that” after I damn near killed myself doing something.
Thanks for Wade tonight. Wisdom often comes as a memory or a whisper from the other side.
Lost my Dad at age 94 12 (!) years ago. WWII vet, US Border Patrol. I now get to hear my grown son channel his Grandpa in what he says, how he says it, and even some of the mannerisms.
He sure set the standard.
Lost my dad on Nov 11, 2005 to cancer. Today is his birthday.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your memories. I wish that I had asked more questions about my grandparents’ lives and experiences before they departed this plane. My maternal grandfather came to the States when he was a boy, shortly after WWI. His dad was one of the Kaiser’s soldiers and died in a Russian POW camp. My paternal grandfather was in the US Navy during that same war and retained his love for the sea service his entire life. I have a written collection of reminisces from conversations with my parents, and dearly wish that I had done the same for the generation before.
I lost my mom in 97, and my dad in 02, we had our
trials, and there are many things I wish I had said
or done, or not said or done; for both of them, the first
anniversary of their passing was difficult.
I choose to believe in the ‘afterlife’, as existence out side
of the body has been proven to me…my mother was with
me in my truck, all the way to the hospital, after I was notified
of her passing.
My dad a WWII vet developed alzheimers, and lasted 5 miserable
years.
My condolences to you, Chris, and all here.
War Damn Screaming Eagle…
Spin
Wrote this nine years ago last month at the old blog on the 15th anniversary of Dad’s passing…
http://poetnthepawnbroker.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-cant-believe-its-been-fifteen-years.html
So he’s been gone from the earth but not from my heart and mind for going on 25 years…how could I still feel him so strongly? The only answer as Sam told Zed back then, is that his soul lives in mine. Some say there is no after-life. Tell it to my Dad.
Wade Darlin’ you might want to turn around…
Maybe go check on your Granddaughters.