A Bittersweet weekend

Just got back from Placerville after a nice weekend with lots of family and friends. We had a celebration of Dad's life on Saturday, full of lots of friends (over 200 we estimated), lots of food and great stories and memories.

This was the picture we enlarged and had at the front door.


It was overwhelming at first to walk into a sea of people that I haven't seen in years.... my first, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade teachers.....my favorite Art teacher, my PE teacher from elementary school.....old friends from junior high....it was quite a trip down memory lane! Lots of Dad's old friends, coworkers, softball buddies, golf buddies.....the list is endless.

The room was only supposed to hold 100 people....I think we broke the rule there. Parking was down the street and it was pretty much standing room only! But it was so heartwarming and amazing to see the amount of people that knew Dad and loved him and had so many great things to say about him. I was always proud to have him as a father, but it was great to hear how wonderful he was to all of his friends too.

Walking around and mingling, I kept getting, "Where is your husband?" I tell ya, that was the weirdest thing! Coz it was the first time to hear that from so many people at one time....I liked getting used to it though!

Casey was quite the charmer.....as he naturally is. He met with lots of people who had heard great things about him, and they were not disappointed! He made a great speech about meeting Dad and trying to not be intimidated. He wishes that he had the rest of his life to try and impress him, but now he will look to him for guidance. And of course he made the audience chuckle, which he is always good at! Afterwards I had many people come up to me telling me what a good choice I made, that he was quite the guy, a winner and an A+. Warmed my heart, because they got to see the guy I love......who is very warm, kind, caring and super funny.

All in all, it was a nice day. It was some sort of closure to a tough time in my life. A month full of some very roller coaster emotions. But I got some great advice from my PE teacher, who lost her mom 13 years ago..... "Take each day one at a time. You get through it, and then tackle the next day. That's really all you can do."

But now that the dust has settled, and we get into the holiday season soon, it's going to hit us that he really is gone. Not on vacation, not coming back soon.......but on to a better place. Don't know when I will finally be ready to accept that. It will come eventually.......I'm just not ready yet.

He left too soon, we weren't quite done with him yet. But apparently, he has his own agenda now.....we'll catch up with him later.