Yesterday we held a Memorial Ceremony for my dad.. I didn’t take pictures in that as I couldn’t figure out how to without getting caught.. . It was a very good day.. just the righ amount of great memories, fun and sadness.   Dad would have loved it.. I kept looking around for him all day..

last night. here are the pictures I did manage to get for the day.. and a few from today as well.

I should say that I almost made us late for the memorial I took a walk to look at what I was goign to say.. and lost track of the time. By the time Id gotten back to the hose most of the family had left !. We quickly dressed and headed t the temple.. I took a picture of my folks front door before i left for the memorial.. Dad will never go through there again.. how strange !

here’s the Temple

Here are max and gabe with my brother in law John and his kids

We all gathered before the service. It was good to have my family close

Here’s Billy and family .. One son Christopher couldn’t come  W missed him.

my good buddy Ron made the drive down from Vermont to be with us as did my friend Sandy..(no picture though)    that meant so much to me !

I was wearing one of my Dad’s ties, gabe was wearing one of his belts and max was wearing Grandpa’s boots.. it felt good

The service was short and sweet.. As I described last night. the rabbi welcomed folks, said one prayer, I spoke then billy then marry.. then the cantor sung, one more prayer, then Kaddish and a song.. then we were done. We sat in the foyer and greeted all the folks that came. there were quite a few folks there. Dad was well loved in the town.

Then we all drove back to my folks.. (should I say my mom’s ?) house for a celebration of dad’s life.. Folks brought the flowers from the temple with them /. Here are cousins suzy. pete and judy.

great aunt ellen, cousin sarah-ann, and nice neighbor folks

steve and cousin Ariel

the house was instantly packed.

I watched my nephew Jake try to find frogs.

Ron tried to help !

Mom had put out a ton of photo albums.. throughout the day people were looking at them

i milled around and talked to a few folks.. I wasn’t feelign very talkative.  I saw my dad’s old friend Jerry Tropiano.. the voice of the Houston Aero’s hockey team when I knew him .

Billy amazed everyone with magic tricks.. this little girl Gabby was amazing.. she told me she was an inventor !

Lots of folks sent flowers. My colleagues at work sent this.. it was so nice !

Once the crowd cleared it was time for dinner. I ordered a ton of sushi.. dad would have loved it. I thought I’d gotten too much.. but.. by the time breakfast was over today it was all gone !!!

After dinner, beilly, max ,. gabe and ben shared video stuff they’d done.

Nothing beats sushi for breakfast !

I found this great caricature that dad had drawn of himself.

After breakfast, we went through some of dads clothes.. he was the same size as me.. so i got some jeans an. shirts and a pair of boots. I was honored to have them. Gabe picked out some shoes and a hat. Max picked out a hat and some other stuff..

We managed to get a family picture.. but on another camera.. I’ll share the real pic when I get it from my ma.

Gabe brought our slingshot.. so we hurled a few objects.

Here’s todays chunk of the condolence letters we’re all getting. thanks to those who sent them ..

 

The day ended with making dad’s famous ‘bachelor spaghetti’   here’s cousing judy managing the cooking..

 

We headed home just before dinner.. It was a really good, fun and warm gathering. there was great closure in this weekend for me.   Now comes  the days, weeks and months of getting used to not having dad in this world.. It’ll be hard work I know.. but I am ready

 

nite all. nite sam

-me