Remembering

Today is a day that is engraved in my brain.  It is interesting how one single day can have such a  significance in ones life.  I remember it like I remember my own birthday.  But I do not expect others to remember it like I do.  28 years ago today I woke up in my bedroom that I shared with my older sister and could hear voices talking in the living and I just knew.  I knew it in my heart.  The Holy Ghost prepared me for what I was to find out in my mind a few minutes later.  It was the day my father passed away.  The day his spirit was finally released from the body that no longer functioned properly.  The day he left a 36 year old wife, a 15 year old, 13 year old (me), a 6 year old and an 18 month old.  He had spent several days in a coma and we knew the end was near, we just didn't know which day it would be.  It was the day that cancer took him away from us.

Every year on this day I shed a few tears.  The days of crying every day because he is gone are long past.  But today I remember.  I also wonder.  I wonder what my life would have been like if he had not died.  But I know everything happens for a reason.  I know I am the woman I am today because I watched a young independent woman raise four children alone.

This year brings new significance in my life.  This year, I'm the age my father was when he died.  I've now lived more time on this earth than my father lived.  To a 13 year old 41 seemed old.  Now I realize just how short his life was on this earth.  I realize just how unfair life can be some times.  But again, I know everything happens for a reason and he was needed beyond the veil for greater purposes.  I know if I continue to live my life like I have I will be able to return and live with him again someday.  I just hope that someday is not too soon.

I wish I remembered more about him.  I remember him as a tall handsome man.  He loved playing tennis and enjoyed jogging.  He was an entrepreneur.  He worked for JBL for years.  Now a days they are well known for their speakers and home audio.  Back then not a lot of people knew the company.  When I would share at school where he worked the teachers all assumed I was saying it wrong and he worked for JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) because we lived near there and everyone know what that was.

He left JBL to start his own company, Quantum Audio Labs.  He made these 

Sound Boards for recording studios.  I just did a Google search on them and apparently they are a collectors items now for sound geeks.  We spent HOURS at the business in Glendale, CA (near LA).  Inventory was always the funnest.  All those little knobs were big compared to some of the parts we would have to count.

He loved a good road trip.  Here we are!  Grandma Pritchett, Dad, me and Kim.  I think we are in Seattle.  Or maybe we are on the Queen Mary.  He was usually the one behind the camera taking the pictures.

And he loved to camp.  I have to post this picture just to remember that tent and the station wagon.  I remember setting up that tent many times late at night in the dark.  For you who know me well, you know camping is no longer one of my favorite things.  Probably because of all those late nights.  In the picture is Mom, Melissa in the stroller, Kim and me.

He knew how to work hard.  Here he is on Great Uncle Jay's ranch splitting wood.

He upheld his Priesthood and blessed us as a family because of it.  This is Kim and Dad right before her baptism.  I was often his Home Teaching Companion and gained a testimony of Home and Visiting Teaching because of him.

He loved his Mustang.  And I'm not sure Kim has ever forgiven my mom for selling it after he died.  I hear it is worth a lot more now than it was then.

He was not afraid of heights, and liked to scare Mom.  I remember her being nervous about us all standing out on this ledge at the Grand Canyon (I think).  Melissa is the baby in his arms.

We are at Grandma Pritchett's in Provo for Christmas one year.  And last I checked the house was still green.  He loved the sweater he is wearing.  A member on his mission knitted it for him.  He served in the Toronto Canada mission and his mission president was the young Thomas S Monson .  I wish he were alive just to tell us of the stories from his mission.  I'm sure they are amazing.  Thomas S Monson is now the Prophet of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

This was the 70s, but really, what was he thinking mixing those two plaids.  Even scarrier, I think my Mom sewed him that suit.

For those who are still reading, thank you for walking down memory lane with me today.  I wanted to document my thoughts and feelings for my children to read some day.

Dad, I love you and miss you!  Thank You for being the wonderful man you were.