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My Dad died this morning, December 29th, shortly before his 75th birthday.<\/p>\n
He liked children and dogs and expensive dinners and pin striped suits and Mercedes Benz cars and being Jewish. Before his health declined, he was a big personality contained in a tall impressive package. He loved that I traveled and he would ask me to greet the penguins or the elephants or the orcas for him while I was out in the world. He was a salesman and an ex-con and he loved his wife and he wanted the best for his children. I think he genuinely believed that the Jews were the Chosen People, but he was staunchly anti-racist. He played the banjo and the guitar and he liked to drink coffee and sometimes, scotch. He was a swimmer, a veteran of the Korean war, a boy from New York who moved his family west but never quite lost his New York accent.\u00a0 He could, as they say, fill up a room. He was also deeply flawed, as humans are, and his life had, well, it sort of got away from him, I suppose.<\/p>\n
I am a lot like my Dad, opinionated and stubbornly convinced that I’m right 99% of the time. I have his lousy eyesight and his over-sized ego.\u00a0 I share his joy in the absurd and while it has manifested in different ways, I have his appetite for life.<\/p>\n
My Dad has been lost to me for several years now; he had Alzheimer’s and our family relationships have been difficult. But I loved him and I will miss him now that he is really gone.<\/p>\n
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