Hello everyone,

It's been a strange, hallowed 10 days since my dad slipped away from us. For the first few days, we still had his wheelchair. It had become such an extension of my dad's body — his exoskeleton, if you will — that I sometimes found myself turning toward it to ask how he was feeling, check his catheter bag, or monitor his breathing. These nanoseconds of an alternate reality threw me and comforted me. After all, it is a very hard thing to witness the world keep on turning without someone you love. 

This tug between then and now has me continually returning to these words by poet Gwendolyn Brooks: "Even if you are not ready for day, it cannot always be night." 

So here we are. Dad's obituary is in print. There's a jarring finality to that. You can read it here. 

The obituary mentions that you can share a memory of Dad here, but I realized I'd never created a post for this purpose! That's this post. Please, if you have any message for the family or perhaps a thought, memory, or story about my dad, share it here. Reminders of him — and even glimpses of a different side of him than we got to see — are so welcome.

Another order of business: for those who cannot travel here, we will have a YouTube live stream of the Saturday service. It's at 10:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time) on Saturday, October 9.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCTeO8kFPA. 

Finally, thank you all for being here. Thank you for your comments. When I set up a CaringBridge site for my dad, I didn't realize I would do all of the writing. That wasn't the intent (my family members have their own thoughts and feelings, made public or not), but the process of sharing with all of you has helped me. So thank you for being here.

With love,

Leandra