Lawrence Semmel

My father was born at the Flower hospital in Manhattan, New York on August 12, 1937. His mother and my grandfather were married for 12 years and my grandfather divorced her when dad was 7. She died at Brooklyn State Hospital a year later at the age of 39. My grandfather remarried a lady with children of her own who basically ignored my father. So dad grew up with little to no maternal love and nurturance.

He moved to Florida between 1955-56 and then joined the air force, was stationed in Greenland as a radar operator. He met my mother in 1957 and they married on Aug. 26th, 1960. I was born in January, 1962. During that time, Dad worked for the IRS and spent his entire career as a civil servant. Dad has been in the US Air Force reserve for over 30 years and he switched over to the US Navy for a brief time in the mid 70's. He went back into the Air Force reserve and the CA Air National Guard. He also volunteered for tour in Operation Desert Storm at the age of 55. His reserve unit was mobilized to the UAE, and he spent time in Sharjah, and Dhahran. He loves to talk about that chapter of his life and he is a proud veteran of war. He retired from the reserves in 1992 and was fully retired by 1996-97.

In the years that followed, dad battled heart disease, colorectal cancer and mental health issues though in between various issues he had, his general health had  been excellent. a few about 7 years ago, he began to show signs of dementia and 2014, my dad became a widower when my mother passed away. That is when his dementia began to worsen. My father lives in an Alzheimer's Dementia Assisted Living Facility where we visit him weekly, take him out to eat and see to his needs. He was diagnosed with DLBC Lymphoma on July 11 this year.