Before I begin I would like to thank all of you for your efforts to be here today, to help us mark my father's passing. Each of you here had your own relationship with my Dad, each of you has your own set of memories.
I can't believe it's been over 40 days since my father passed away. At times it feels like it was yesterday and at other times it feels like it was long ago. While my mind know this, my hearts can’t accept it. When someone close to you dies, your world can feel suddenly different and unknown. It’s hard to watch the world keep going on for everyone else when your life has such a hole in it. You still have to work, drive, eat…., but nothing is really the same. Everything else seems so small and so trivial.
Not a day passes by without something or someone reminding me of him. Whether it is the empty spot in a chair in the living room or kitchen I miss him in every way.
When I told my medical assistant Rose about my dad. She also knew my dad and who also lost her own dad 5 years ago. She told me about a quote that helped her. It from Dr. Seuss. He said “ Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
The translation mean:: Don’t cry about death, smile about life.
When we think of someone that isn’t there anymore, you have the choice to remember that person is no longer here, and be sad, or to remember the good times, and be happy. And while it might not be an easy choice, it is a choice,
We are here today not to be sad about my dad, but to Celebrate his life.
To celebrate his gigantic smile and the way he filled any room.
To celebrate his passions for food
To celebrate his passion for medicine and helping people
To celebrate his passion for his family
To celebrate his positiveness
I have struggled to find the right words, the right stories that would speak truly of my father...But there are simply too many. He had a rich life… a giving life and life that I admired even to his last breath.
My father was more than a Dad to me. He was my best friend. I confided in him with everything and about anything. He loved so many people, places and things, but nothing so much as my mother.
What my dad gave to the world was his big, generous personality. He devoted himself to his friends and family as fully as he did everything else.
The world is filled with sons who never heard their father say “I love you,” and who wonder throughout their lives whether they were loved, Not me. The last few years before I would leave my parent’s house. My dad would up from his chair and we would hug and kiss and say “I love you” to each other.
I realized that my father will never truly be gone. He is still here with me in spirit. My father taught me how to love — he sacrificed his life for our family, and he will live on through me. His legacy will continue through my work, and because of him I will know how to love my family — the way he loved us. He was and always will be my motivation to fight through struggles, work hard, be a fighter, and to always be positive. Death is always a challenge for everyone. It tells us not to waste time... It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other. Don’t be sad because my dad is gone , smile because you knew him..
My memories have become my heartbeats – which means I am thinking of him all the time just to stay alive.
We will miss you and always love you.
