Six Years

Ok dudes, sorry to bring the mood down! But my mood is pretty down today so I'm dragging you all down with me.

Today is the six year anniversary of losing my Dad. I was a freshman in college, and he had a heart attack. He was gone by the time my Mom called me. It was a horrible miserable experience I don't wish on anyone, and while you learn to cope, it never ever gets any easier or hurts less.

Time to share some pictures... I like to reminisce and browse them on days like today, Father's Day, and his birthday.

Here I am with Dad right after I was adopted.

He had horrible fashion sense but we loved him anyway.

Even though I'm adopted, we really looked a lot alike.

Here's a bunch of us- my Dad with me (bottom), R (top), and M (right) on the first day of school.

Our Christmas card one year. Looks like sweatpants were contagious?

A family trip to Arizona my sophomore year of high school took us to Camelback Mountain. That was one heck of a hike.

This is my favorite picture (well one of them.) It was my Dad's 50th Birthday roast my senior year of high school. I made a list of the "Top Ten Things You Don't Want John to Say," things like "I can fix that!" and "I'm going to Home Depot." I've never been 100% sure, but I think he's giving me the finger! Which would be very typical of him.

This year is very hard because I so, so wish he was here for this big event in my life. I was the lucky one out of the three of us who got to have him there for our high school reunion. We all missed out on so many memories with him. I wish he had gotten a chance to meet Mr Pug - they would have had so much in common, from guitar and their love of music to their sense of humor.

I will never get to have him walk me down the aisle. I will never have a father/daughter dance. He'll never get to hold his (hypothetical, future) grandchildren. It's such a loss for us and everyone who should have known him.

So everyone, go hug your Dad! Take tons of pictures with him, since I didn't and wish I had. And please make sure your parents have life insurance. My Dad didn't, and it has made this tragedy even harder and sadder for all of us, and we're still feeling those effects six years later. I'll never take my important relationships for granted again and I hope you all won't either.