My Dad

Thank you all so much for being here today. It means so much to us.
Please bear with me if this takes a while for me to say.

This is the last place I thought I'd be today. It's also the last place I want to be.
It's only been a couple of days and I already miss him so much. We all do.
Glenda, Norma, Michael and I couldn't have asked for a better father. No matter what happened in our lives, he was always on our side.

Whenever I have a big decision to make, I always make my decision based on advice my dad always gave us. He said to not to worry about what it will mean 10 years from now, but to do what feels right, right at this moment. And later if I ever questioned if I made the right decision on something, he always said that you can't think that way because you did what was right at the time.

He was always so proud of all of us.

He was proud of Glenda for being not only a caring and wonderful daughter and sister, but also a caring daughter-in-law. I remember him saying he was proud of her for the way she reached to help her extended family when they needed support. It was a sign that he and my mother had raised her to always do the right thing for other people.
He was proud of Norma for following the traditions he and my mother set for us. Norma has a home similar to the one in which we grew up. She has a kosher home, has Shabbat dinner for her family and is active in her synagogue in Texas. He was proud of her for making a life for her and her family in Texas, yet still seeing all of us as often as possible.

He was proud of Michael for following in his business footsteps. Although he always wanted Michael to do something different so that he would have an easier life and wouldn't have to work as hard as he did, he was so proud of him for being successful. He was skeptical about the location where Michael chose to open his business, but admitted later when he saw Michael's success that he had chosen the perfect place for him.

He was proud of me for my writing. He would call me every Monday morning when my column was published in the newspaper and would tell me that this was the best column yet. He and my mother would give copies to their neighbors every week, and mail copies to relatives, much to my embarrassment. He always told me that I was so talented and it gave him so much pride to see my name in print. He always told me that I needed to keep writing.

And as much as he was proud of us, we are all so proud of him. He always worked so hard to make sure we would all always have whatever we needed. And he had a will to live that was stronger than I can tell you about. Every time he was sick, he fought it and stayed with us. I believe it was his love for his family, including seeing his six grandchildren: Carolyn, Lindsey, Seth, Ryan, Rachel and Aaron, that always kept him going. And our mother, through their 46 years of marriage, was his inspiration. She went above and beyond to do whatever she could to keep him with us for as long as possible. None of us will ever forget that, and we can't thank her enough.

It made us so sad to think of him ever suffering, and it eases our heartache a little to know he is no longer suffering. We are trying very hard to think of that, instead of just being selfish and wishing he was still here no matter what.

Our lives will never be the same without him, but none of us would trade a single moment we had with him for the world.