Sometimes we are lucky, we have a second chance to gain back something we felt we lost; for me thus was my father. When I was 14 my father Ralph, died of a massive heart attack, at the time I did not believe that my father would die, so I did not go to the hospital... my father died several days later. Until the past few years, I had not really gotten over this.
When I was fortunate enough to meet Naila Moon, I had the chance to gain a second father, one who was in many ways a lot like me. Bob, was a writer and a great story teller as a matter of fact, he was so good you were never sure if he was telling the truth or a story out of his imagination.
I found out that Bob had been in the Navy, during the cold war yet was a beatnic and dedicated to peace. He was a reporter and and ad man. He lived to go to the Indy 500 every year, and he loved his wife of 45 years and his four children... he also loved his new son in law, whom he thought a bit off the wall.
I knew from when I married Naila Moon, that her father was on borrowed time, and yet I thought I had many years to know this man, that was not to be. He had many forms of cancer from being a chain smoker for many years, yet he managed to surprise the doctors more than once. Then this Wednesday he passed. I suddenly was dealing with emotions that I had not experienced since I was 14. The sense of loss and confusion were back like monsters.
Yet I know that Bob, is at rest and finally free of all the pain he had suffered for the last several years.
photos of two fathers follow
My dad in law Bob, holding a model I built for him, September of last year.
My dad Ralph 1973, the teacher, and what he loved even more, being a musician.
Dads sharing time together.
Top Bob and Ree in the backyard of their home in Podunk Missouri, last September.
Bottom my mom Evelyn, who passed in June of 1998, with my dad Ralph hiking to a favorite fishing hole near lake Dillon 1972.
Top Evvy and Ralph on our old couch in the house on Vine Street 1973
Bob and Ree their wedding day
