My sincerest condolences sweetie! I lost my father in 2006 and my mom in 2009, I miss them both dearly also!

It was so good that you had him around for so long. For me,
many of the best thing that I like about myself, I got from my
own father. They are special, like all family and friends are,
but almost every day I find some part of me that I recognize as
also having been a part of him. I know that's not something that
will probably be so important in a couple of hundred years... but
when I look at myself and my children, it is a comfort to realize
that our families go on.

We once had a member of our family who died very suddenly with
a new wife and three small children, only a year apart. I was so
sudden and it was so sad, for all that he had missed, and for all
that Mike was such a very nice man, that it really devastated both
families. (I was unrelated, but I grew up with them so the difference
was really of no moment, because I still cry whenever I think about it.)

His brother in law, father Tom said something that day, the same
thing that I've just said to you. That through all the hurt, and through
all the hurt he could still look our and see all the young faces in our
families, and know that our family, and in that way we ourselves, go on.

As a Chemist/biologist, one of several hats I've worn, I told Tom how much
I appreciated hearing that thought from him, because it was the thing that
I found most helpful. I think, that there is no such thing as a parent whom
does not fully realize this as the mayhem of raising a young family subsides,
and I'm sure your father did too.

As a biologist, I would add this

When you consider how unlikely it is that each of us is here, if there
is such a thing as a miracle, it has to be in each of our individual lives.
If we just consider only our parents, and the number of Sperm and Eggs they
produce in their lifetimes, and with each individual combination potentially
different. When you consider the odds, well a lottery is nothing at all in
comparison, save for the fact that it serves as an example that no matter how
long the individual odds... someone does win. Then when you consider that out
of all of those possible combinations in the quadrillions, still only considering
our own parents, how lucky it was that it was we who arrived.

Then you add this one additional little snippet, which is, that life arose on
this planet nearly four Billion years ago. In that all that unimaginably vast
span of time, each an every one of our ancestors, who themselves were to all
practicality without number, may have had only this one thing truly in common: They
all survived long enough, and were successful enough to reproduce, and have
offspring of their own. Every one, without exception... obviously.

I cherish every minute I have, and every person I know; and, when I see someone
who has suffered the pain of such a heartbreaking loss, I am genuinely sad for them.
I can't help but think though, at the very same time, how lucky they have been be
around.

I don't know what immortality is supposed to mean, and I can barely grasp what
"Lucky" is supposed to signify; but, that is the best explanation I've ever heard of
either. My father is gone too, but with what little I've learned, I can tell you
that in every drink of water and every breath of air, there is something of what
he was; and, that there is a very good chance, that some day, that essence will be
returned to the stars. No different than you, and me, and all of our family and
friends...

Take good care of you, remember just how special your father was, and how special
you really are; and that we are all literally, and always, together.

Love,

Sarah Lynn

for your lost my father past away July 10 1961 and my mother pass away June 2008.