Afternoon everyone….
As the years go on and I’m getting older, there are more and more things that I find myself reflecting on.
Now I’m not talking about the what ifs and I should’ve done stuff….
I’m talking about actual things that happened, real life experiences. The kind of things we take advantage of as we are younger.
The reason for this post is because today would’ve been my father’s eighty six birthday.
My dad was born towards the end of the Great Depression. Times were tough and many families lived together with relatives just to be able to afford the rent or mortgage.
Exactly a year after my father was born was the official beginning of World War II. My father told me about the blackout shades they were required to have to block out any light for planes to use as guidance.
When my father was nine years old he was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever. He was bed ridden for over ten months with it. The doctors were unsure if he’d live through it. Is a matter of fact his parents gave him a Christmas celebration in October because the doctors didn’t think he was going to live.
Yet….
Somehow my father made it through it.
Growing up in the city of Bayonne, New Jersey was rough back then. It was a very territorial city. My dad was in a gang back then. Once he saw one of his gang members stabbed to death, he decided to get out and try the army.
My father enlisted into the army in 1955. He and one of his friends went together to enlist. My father to his dying day thinks that somehow the medical files got mixed up between them. Because my dad was accepted, and his best friend was denied.
My father was a communications expert, and was stationed in Japan for over two years. He listened to short wave radios to intercept Russian submarines going through the straights. My father was a Russian linguist for the army. He learned Russian in the Army to perform this job.
My father was going to stay in Japan after his four years were up. But he was called back to the states for his final six months of duty. Surprisingly he never went back to Japan.
I can go on and on with stories about my dad. But that’s not the purpose of this post.
It’s to remind everyone, that life is short. Parents get older as so do we. Don’t take anything for granted, it might not be there tomorrow.
My dad passed away November 9th, 2020, right at the height of covid. He didn’t die from anything covid related, and wasn’t sick till it hit him. His last nearly three months of his life were 100% in the hospital. The last month of it was in ICU.
So please do not take time for granted….
Make sure you spend as much time with the ones you love as you possibly can. You can’t ever get time back.
So today will be a silent celebration of my father’s birthday.