I stayed up way too late Tuesday night looking through old photos of Dad. My brother and I were online chatting until about 4 am--I love technology. I was putting photos I have of Dad into a folder so I could quickly share them with family and friends. As I found ones I particularly liked in my archives (over 24,000 photos since going digital in 2001), I'd pass them along to my family. Yesterday morning my sister Cate sent me a couple she had. One in particular made me laugh, then cry.
Last October my parents drove from their home in Fairfax, Virginia to visit the youngest grandkids in Jacksonville, Florida. They planned to spend Halloween with my sister and stay through the election. My brother-in-law was busy, he's in the NAVY and was captain of a frigate at the time, so my parents were gonna stay and watch the kids on election day while my sister was doing her civic duty manning the polls. Being native "southern" Californians, my folks are very, very democratic and my sister is as well. After re-locating to Florida courtesy of the Navy, Cate found herself smack dab in the middle of Republican territory and was asked to be a democratic monitor at one of the polling stations.
Anyway, as any parent can attest, Halloween is by far the second most important holiday to any kid under the age of 13. It is a close second to Christmas. It was good that my folks went to visit my sister and her family. My niece and nephew dressed up as salt and pepper shakers for the big night, while Dad dawned a red sweat shirt and Santa hat to man the door while the grandkids scurried about through the neighborhood.
My sister sent this photo of Dad. He really didn't have to try very hard to look like Santa. I miss him.