18 years

18 years ago, within a 2 week span, I had one of the greatest things happen to me, the birth of my 2nd son Joey, and, I had to say "see you later" to my dad. 2 weeks ago, we celebrated Joey's 18th birthday.

It doesn't seem possible that my Dad has been gone that long. It seems like we were just talking about baseball and watching the all star game together. That was one of our things that we always did, we watched the MLB All-star game. Even when I was stationed in Germany, we watched it together over the phone (It was 4am my time).

When he died, there was a huge void in my life, and there still is. He was the one that I always turned to when I had questions about taxes, or finances, anything really, he was the one that was always there when I was doing something. For years after I moved to Bowling Green, I played softball, and every once in a while I would catch myself looking in the stands to see if he was watching. My dad played semi-pro baseball in his younger days, and was quite a hitter. Here is a picture of him back in the day...

Baseball was a way of life at my house. He was the only coach I knew until I got into High School.

One of the many nice things in my life now, is that I get to see a little of my dad in each of my children. In Andrew, I see my dad because he looks like me, and in turn, like dad. He also has that drive to work hard and help people. Now Joey, who's middle name is Alfred, you have to know what you are looking for. Joey gets a mischievous look, and grin on his face right before he is going to do something to mess with someone else. My dad did the same thing. And Aaron has the same love and ability for mathematics. My dad was a wiz with numbers and so is Runt.

I wish that my son's could have known my father, or "Alf, the wonder dad", as all my friends in High School referred to him. He was a great man, and I miss him a lot.