Seismic Change

Dear Reader,

My father died yesterday, Veteran's Day, 11/11/10. Appropriate, as he was a WW II veteran, and served in the US Navy for 37 years after that. He also served in the Coast Guard for several years after his retirement from the Navy. His career was primarily as a lawyer and judge. His WW II service was as a reconnaisance pilot in the Pacific.

I had my breakdown Wednesday night when I was told he'd had a stroke, which rendered him unable to communicate. For him, this was tantamount to death, but there was still some hope at the time he might recover some movement and speech. My feeling that he was going got stronger overnight, and was confirmed when I spoke with my sister at about 5:30 PM, to learn that he had died at around 4:30.

I'm preparing for a concert on Saturday, and trying to put together some items for his funeral. I need to do the concert; he would have insisted that I meet my committment to my group to sing. His approach to his own (and others') death was that, I'm gone, there's nothing you can do at this point about that. Whatever happens now is up to you; I'm done.

A lot of the emotion hasn't set in yet. I have a lot of regrets, and a lot of relief. But, I'm preoccupied with the concert and the fact I have to drive from NYC to West Virginia for his funeral and to help my sisters. I'll stay through Thanksgiving for them.

Going down there is a big production for me, and I've lost my drivers license, so that complicates everything, as I have to rent a car to get down there. What can go wrong will go wrong, as they say.

More later; I need to get some sleep.

Catbird