Too long gone...

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since September 2013. Wow! Well, there's a lot to catch up on an I'm sorry to say it's not all good. Right now, anything before November 24th-26th just doesn't really register. My dad died November 26th, leading into the holiday season craziness, so things have been a bit of a blur.

Some of the things we did from the end of September into November were:

• Family movie night at school (the movie JD wanted to see, Space Buddies)
• Trick or treating with our neighbors and JD's godfather and his girlfriend and her son.
• Camping at Gettysburg Campground the first weekend in November for their final Halloween weekend (great site decorations, a haunted house, and so much candy from more trick or treating!)
• Finished up JD's soccer season the second weekend in November and had a team party...he was so excited for his trophy!

On November 23rd, I got a phone call from my mom and brother that dad had fallen and was in the hospital and when the asked if I was going to come up, just from the way they sounded I knew I had to go. I cancelled appointments, made arrangements for JD getting to school and called work (thank goodness I work for a company that it very understanding and supportive). Drove to NJ on Sunday and we went to see dad. He knew I was there and was able to communicate, but it was hard to hear him because he couldn't get enough breath to be loud enough. He asked where Reece was and I told him he was with JD at hoe, since JD still had school. Then he asked who was helping Reece and I told him Carolyn (his mom), dad smiled. His pneumonia was back, he had fallen and he also had an infection that brought his white count down to 1. That never happens according to the doctors. We spent most of that day and the next 2 days at the hospital. By Tuesday he was in and out of conciseness and we could get him to open his eye and squeeze our hands. Tuesday morning I went to the doctor, worried I might have strep again and got a call from Dave that the hospital called; dad had taken a turn for the worse and we needed to get there. I called Reece and told him and an hour later he had the car packed and told me he was taking JD out of school so they could get to NJ. We got to the hospital and they told us his kidney function had dropped and the antibiotics were not doing much and asked us if we wanted to just do comfort care. We said yes...terrible decision to have to make. We asked them to wait to turn of his meds and take off the pressurized oxygen mask until after we called Fr. Mattina, a family friend, to see if he was in NJ (he's an Air Force Chaplain). He was and was in the area and told us he'd be there by 3:00. After Father arrived, he did the anointing of the sick and gave dad last rites and it was nice to have someone who knew him to do that. Father stayed with us for a while and when he left I was going to go with my brother's girlfriend Amy to get Reece at the house. We were just about to go out the door and I looked at dad's monitor, his heart rate was already dropping and I told Amy I wasn't going anywhere. She offered to go get Reece. So it was just me, mom and Dave when they came to remove the mask. We held his hands, mom rubbed his cheek and we talked to him...it was like he was asleep...and then he was gone. I'm glad I was there, but it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. Then we had to go back to the house and I had to explain this all to JD...another hard thing to do and he was very accepting in his own way..and Reece was upset he didn't get to say goodbye. Some of Dave's friends had already arrived at the house and we had food and drank and talked about dad.

The next, like, 10 days were filled with friends, family and all the things you need to take care of for funeral services. Things like getting dad's clothes together (as the mortitian, Rich McDonough, said "bring his clothes like he's going to church"); picking hymns and reading and decided who would do them; choosing the casket; choosing pall barers; meeting with Father Kindon at the church; choosing flowers; and what goes on prayer cards, both picture and verse. The prayer card picture was pretty easy. We chose a photo of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, one of dad's favorite places.

We had a viewing for dad on Monday night (Dec 2) and Tuesday morning, before the funeral mass. Between both visitation times, there were close to two hundred people who came to pay their respects to dad. Amazing! It shows you what kind of guy he was. Customers from where he used to work; the owners of the company he worked for (one even drove from FL!); freinds of Dave and mine from highschool and thier parents; neighbors, old and new; the staff from one of dad and mom's favorite plaes to eat; I even had friends come from Michigan and Maryland to be there. My boss and the owner of my company drove up for the funeral and cemetery service on Tuesday. Wow! The mass was beautiful and Fr. Kindon spoke beautifully about dad. Everything he said was just so perfect. The cemetery is a good distance from the church, but the ride is beautiful. It's in Newtown, PA, not far from historic Washington Crossing, PA and it has only been open for a few years. They placed the pavillions for the services far from the road, in case of protesters, such as the Westboro Baptist group. From where they are, you'd never know if there were protestor at the front gate while the service was going on...well done on that design! They had an honor guard and a 21 gun salute and someone playing Taps. It was just beautiful and respectful and perfect. At some point I plan to write something about dad...there's only so much you can say in an obituary. Will post it here when I do.

Reece and JD went home Tuesday night after the funeral so that JD could get back to school. I stayed until the next day...didn't want mom to have to be alone in the house Tuesday night. From the time I got back until this past weekend, it's been go, go, go! I scheduled to volunteer at JD's school that Friday, which I did do. It was nice to be with the kids. Then Saturday Reece and I went to Hershey to see Straight No Chaser for Reece's birthday. The following weekend we had the family party at Reece's union hall and made a Costco run for our open house the following weekend. And through all this I (with a bit of help) decorated the house, got gifts, planned Christmas dinner, got a haircut (finally!), sent out thank yous for flowers and donations/flowers from the dad's services, and got our Christmas cards out. We spent Christmas day with Reece's family and went to NJ to vist my mom and brother and his girlfriend the weekend after. We also got to meet Dave's new black lab puppy, Nova. She's a cuite and really a good dog. Came home Sunday and then a few das later went out for New Year's Eve with some friends. Definitely time to say out with the old, in with the new year!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a very Happy and Healthy New Year! Here's to a great 2014!