I lost my father over twenty years ago, but I will still have memories crop up now and again. And nearly all those memories are good ones.
We remember who they were to us. My father suffered a stroke twenty years prior to his death that left him partially paralyzed.
His life had changed radically but he didn't stop living. He found ways to do the things he wanted to do.
While there are memories of those times when I literally had to carry the man into the bathroom near the end. The recollections that come the most are those of the strong, and confident man who, when I was a kid, could do anything. He fixed the cars, he built a boat, he built the last house they lived in from the ground up, including the electrical and the plumbing. He left high school to enlist in the Navy during WWII but never let his lack of schooling hold him back. He had a sharp mind and used it to learn those things he wanted to know.
Every kid idolizes their parents to some respect, it's only natural. It's those memories that we can hold onto when their gone and allows us to keep them alive in our hearts.
Tank (who says the pain eventually fades, but the love never does)
