Raising a glass and a thought for you and him

Speaking of drinking tonight.... Tonight is the night I...

TS_Tiger · 2025-09-18T22:37:38.827Z

Celebrate my dad who passed yesterday morning and a very short stint of diagnosed cancer. It came on so fast, it hard to believe. I don't have a ton of words right now. More so emotions and memories. So, it's just a quick thought. So, I'll be sipping on my fresh bottle of Eagle Rare and knocking back a couple extra for my old man! Wish we were sharing one more. RIP, Dad. I love you!

I fortunately have both parents stil, but I was thinking... my kids will be the last ones that know them. Their kids more than likely wont. Then I started thinking about leaving a legacy... that lead me to this:

My parents will be remembered u til Chris comes back... as hopefully I will as well. Not known in the same since, but the love my grandparents had for me and my parents is shared with my children through me. As my parents love will be shared through my kids to (God willing) their kids and grandkids. Maybe not me as a person... but my legacy will continue on just as I carry the mantle of my parents and grandparents... and so on and so forth. And that was comforting... I hope one day, I meet the 4th, 5th, 6th.. generation and they know me because of the love that let us share a name.

Sorry, I always have a hard time putting into words what I mean... how I feel and what I think about, but this was comforting to me... my parents, grandparents... mine... our legacy will continue on.

oh_its_JimmyHEYHEY®

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I shall join you.

Sep 18, 2025, 9:08 PM

Because tonight, as it were, I am packing up three albums of my dad's time in the Army, to send it to one of his service buddies. Steve was one of two of his best friends from that time. I knew one pretty well; we saw each other's family about once every other year growing up. Steve, though, the first time I met was Dad's funeral. We didn't have Steve's contact info, so dad couldn't call him at the end. But, the other buddy had kept in touch and brought him down, and I got a chance to meet him.

About a month after the funeral, I got a letter from Steve. He appreciated being able to celebrate dad's life, and noted how much he enjoyed meeting me.

But he also asked if we wouldn't mind sharing the albums with him. Like me, he didn't even know they existed.

So, tonight I'm packing them up. I scanned all of the ones of my dad, and took a few of the originals of just him for myself. But three albums...I'm just sending them to him.

Going through them today, it was weird seeing dad in that phase of his life. It was only three years, so it wasn't his "defining" period. He joined right after high school so he wouldn't get drafted. Was stationed in Germany in the maintenance division. Learned HVAC. He would work the next 40 years for Trane.

But looking through these pictures, he's literally just a kid. Barely recognizable, except to his son.

There is one picture in particular that really stood out though. It's him, and his buddy I'm sending this too. They're at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Dad is looking right at the camera. All of 19 or 20. In the most beautiful city in the world. His whole life ahead of him. No wife or kids yet. Not even a girl back home. Just him. His buddy. And the world under him.

So what I want to ask Steve is, what did you guys talk about up there. What plans did you make. What was on your mind. What did young Dad see for himself.

Dad died content. Like you TS, when his cancer came back, it took him so much quicker than we thought. But, we knew the end was coming, and based on some advice I got here, I got to say everything I wanted so that I left nothing unsaid. And, in those conversations, he told me his only regret was not seeing his grandkids grow up to be older. But he got to see the world. He saw Paris. Skied Zugspitze. Met celebrities -- including sharing a shrimp cocktail with Keanu Reeves, and peeing next to Tom Brady. And above anything else, built a very comfortable life for his family. It was a life more lived than most. Not bad for an A/C repair man.

Looking at these pictures, I see so much of me. Not just being his son, but being a young man once, having dreams, and likely following a different path than what they originally were. But, ending up far happier, and content, with where life took me, than I ever could have imagined for myself. Like him, my singular drive in life is to provide for my wife, and my son. To build a comfortable, happy life around them. And, when I go, I hope my son will look the same way at my photos, and find himself in a similar spot.

God bless your dad, you, and your family.