I would sit in his workshop for hours alone, listening to a little radio and building model airplanes. He would occasionally come and check on me to see how I was doing and to help me paint and put the decals on. My attention to detail was formed in those hours.
We would go in the back yard with a bat, ball and glove as he taught me how to throw and hit and catch. It would come in handy later when I played little league. Only girl on an all boy team was fun. lol
He taught me how to fish. We'd take my grandpa Leo's fishin' boat out at 4AM and sit in companionable silence. Cast our lines, watch the water like glass and listen to the boat follow the slow waves. I would watch him go from being deep in thought to being a 6yr. old the second we had a fish on the line. If we didn't catch anything, we would crack open a can of sardines, spread butter on some crackers and that would be our lunch. For a few weekends leading up to his death, he went out fishing alone. Mom and I believed he knew what was going to happen.
He taught me how to throw a football. That would come in handy later in High School when I managed the football team.
He also taught me how to cook and bake. Mom was great at cooking Filipino food, but didn't know a lot of American dishes and didn't know how to bake. Pops and I would stand side by side at the stove and I would mimic him. To this day, I cannot cook without a towel over my left shoulder. He always had one on his right, but I'm left handed so that felt awkward to me.
He would drive me to dance classes 45 minutes each way, just because he knew how much I loved to dance.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
"All you need is duct tape and WD-40 and you're set. But if you can't duct it, then fuck it..call me and I'll come fix it." Being the engineer he was, that man could fix just about anything.
I am SO much my Father's daughter. I have his gait, and his height. The moles on my face are from him. I purse my lips when I'm working on a project and contemplating something. I can have an intimidating presence about me when I walk into a room that demands the business side of me to be shrewd. And let's not forget the two bum kidneys he lovingly gave me. lol He would often say, "Well, ya can't say I never gave you anything."
I know how to change my oil, and change a tire. I know the difference between a Phillips and a flat head and I never shy away from manual labor of any kind.
Thursday, August 29th, 2013 Pops was driving home from work when he was having trouble breathing. He pulled into a Casey's and called 911. By the time they got to him he was slumped over the steering wheel, not breathing. His heart had given out. They worked on him for 40 minutes and brought him back. I will never forget that phone call. I was at my son's first football game. The only one I was going to be able to go to and had to leave to rush to the hospital.
It was a VERY long weekend of uncertainty. Although, Mom and I both knew. The second I first walked into the room...I knew. They had him in an induced coma and on a ventilator. On Sunday, September 1st (His Mother's birthday), Mom and I made the decision to let him go. My sisters had a hard time accepting it, but we knew it was what he would've wanted. He had been fighting for so long, and his body was so tired. It was time for us to fight for him.
When we took him off of the ventilator, it was just me, my two sisters and Mom in the room. We listened to him with his labored breath, continue to try and fight. I finally leaned over the bed, took his face in my hands, and with tears streaming down my face said, "Thank you. Thank you for EVERYthing. It's okay Daddy. It's okay...you can go. It's time to go now."
A tear slid down out of his right eye, he looked right at me and with his face in my hands, took his last breath.
I had been given that moment to thank him for my life and I will NEVER forget it.
