Today, was a wierd day.

My Dad was a disabled WWII veteran. His hearing was shot, after being a gunner's mate on a destroyer. He narrowly missed being killed when a kamikaze hit his ship. He refused to take disability because it was his job.

In later years he also had COPD because of cigars. He refrained but often indulged during deer season.

He didn't walk far but I could always find him because of the smoke. It was easy to sneak up on him because he couldn't hear me (or a deer either).

After he stopped hunting we would always stop off at the house to show him this year's trophy.

The first year after he passed I was out hunting with his grandson and at mid day I could smell cigar smoke. I rushed over the hill to see who was trespassing on our property. I saw nobody there, and then I realized that Dad was with us that day.
 
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My Dad would have turned 92 this past Thanksgiving. He was a Korea and Vietnam vet. He was cremated, so no headstone. What cemetery is your Dad in? Maybe I can stop by and leave a coin on behalf of my Dad.
 
My dad is buried at Mt Calvary. My dad's younger brother is buried there, too - about 10' away - he died in 2012. The funny part is that most of my childhood neighborhood is buried there. When I take my mom to visit my Dad, she always says, "Hi, neighbors!" as we drive by.

My dad wanted, originally, to be buried at the military cemetery in Santa Fe, but my mom talked him into being closer to home so she could visit more often. I glad he's close by.

I AM lucky to still have my mom. I AM lucky to have the parents that I had growing up. They adopted my sister and I late in life. They did the best they could with what they had. It was tough being 45+ years apart in age - they didn't understand us and we, my sister and I, didn't understand them. It was hard. I made it, unnecessarily, hard. They put up with a lot from me.

As I got older and mellowed out, I realized and appreciated the gift that I had been given. I realized and appreciated why I was given the name "Matthias" after St. Matthias. I AM the luckiest man on Earth! I owe my folks a huge debt of gratitude, I can never repay. I love my folks beyond words...

There's a monument to our family in Canadian, Texas as all the brothers served in the military. The three oldest were in WW2, North Africa-Italy, Aleutians, Saipan-Iwo-Okinawa, my dad Korea, one was a Coastie on one of the Wind class icebreakers, and the last was a Navy Corpsman attached to 1st Battalion 9th Marines in Vietnam. All the brothers are gone...
 
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My dad has only been gone for 9 years now, and he lived to one day short of his 87th birthday. When in last October his birthday came around, I texted my cousins to commemorate Pop's birthday. The response I got was wonderful. I heard about a bunch of the things he did for my cousins and their children that I never knew about and how he is still fondly remembered by one of my cousin's children.
 
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