Mod Post
My sincerest apologies for not being here, guys.
On May 18th, I received a call at work informing me that my father-my only parent since my mom died in 2000 and a man I loved and cared about more deeply then even I understood-had suffered a massive stroke and wasn't expected to live. We got to the hospital in time to say our goodbyes and he passed away at 6 AM the next morning. The stroke had virtually destroyed half his brain and there was no way he could have survived it. He had told both my sister and me-after our mom died-that should anything like this ever happen to him that he wanted us to have the strength to let him go peacefully-my sister, who lives in Oregon, was driving down when the decision had to be made and she told me then to make the decision for both of us, so I did, telling the doctor to keep him comfortable and out of pain and let him go when it's time. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life and it haunts me to this day, probably will forever.
To say I miss him terribly in an incredible understatement. My dad was a great guy, with a fabulous smile and twinkling eyes that always laughed-he never met a stranger in his life and was willing to help anyone who ever needed it, and he loved my sister, my mom and myself without condition and taught me to do the same. He wasn't just my dad, he was my hero, all my life-he was always there for me, whenever I needed anything, be it fixing the car or just giving me a hug when I needed one. I loved him dearly and there's a huge hole in my life now. I've been trying to deal with it as best as I can-some days it's harder than others-and it's going to take a long time before life returns to some form of normality, if it ever does. But one thing he always told us was that-should he die tommorrow-not to grieve, that he'd had good long life, to do our mourning and get on with our lives, so I will do my best to honour that request. I've returned to work and I will start returning here as well-I still have a LOT of stuff to catch up with and I will do my best to try and do so.
Funny enough, he always said he had no regrets, so everytime I ever heard that from Kitsch-be it through Riggs or just as himself-it always made me smile and it always will.
At least my sister and I have the solace of knowing that he and mom are finally together again, and there's a peace in that that I can't even begin to explain.
Thanks to all-especially sammipunk -who have been trying to keep things up-to-date here-you guys rock. :)
Thanks for understanding in advance. Will try to-hopefully-get some stuff up this weekend. If not, bear with me-there's a lot left to deal with in regards to my Dad-but I will try and get things up here as soon as I'm able to.