1-15-84

It was a typical Sunday at the house
Got in late with my best friend David the night before
Had too much to drink, late night and all
So I slept it off like a good boy

Sunday Morning is here and a knock on my bedroom door
I wake up in a fog and it's my DAD
"Let's go out for some breakfast son"
No Dad, I got in late last night , go without me ,Love You

January 15, 1984
The day that changed me forever
We had a lunch date with my Brother's in-laws in Marina Del Rey
I woke up, showered, put on a record on the phono and readied for our date

Getting dressed  listening to Duran Duran "save a prayer "
Phone rings and Sister and brother tell my mother we have to go?
It's dad, he was taken to the Hospital
So we hurried and arrived at Old St. Johns

Rushed frantically to see where he was
Nobody could look us in the eye
Nobody had answers til the Priest comes out and directs us to a room
I remember hearing my brother say"oh NO,this Isn't good"

Before I got in the room we all knew my dad was gone
My heart and my world was broken in many shattered pieces
This couldn't be happening
I just told him I loved him!!

He was so happy in the last hour of his life
We were clueless as ours would be changed
I felt that this wasn't fair,
He survived a Japanese prison camp for 3 1/2 years
The nightmare and trips to his therapist for his PTSD
God how could you take him like this?

Numbness never really escaped me from that point on
My friend David took me to get something to eat
He consoled me , he hugged me and said he was very sorry
I ended up marrying David's younger sister

I thought my world would never come back
I lost myself in my father's death
The best thing of that day
Was that I remember my last words to him were "I Love You Dad"

I took me 3 years to get over my dad
I lost my father in 1984
Became a father in 1985
My son had saved me from myself

I hear that when one door closes
The other side of the building falls down?
My fatherly loss and my personal gain
I struggled with fatherhood for the first 2 years
Grandpa Gregorio would have loved my boy Brandon
He would have loved the fact that I named him Brandon
Named after Brandon Scott King, a boy he also loved
Our firends 5 year old boy that was killed on his bicycle

He would have loved everything about his kids
Our spouses, the grandchildren,
The Candy Bars he would have hidden from the kids
Or the trips for pancakes that he loved to make

We miss him still with a respectful fondness
We never went hungry ,always had a warm place to sleep
Always gave us as much love as he knew
And would fight to the death to protect us