On Eagle's Wings

It is with a heavy heart that I write tonight. I came home from a wonderful weekend with Sunshine only to find out that my godfather passed away this weekend on Saturday. I promise to post about all my adventures with yarn and Sunshine this weekend later on this week but for tonight I just wanted to write a little about my godfather since this blog has become my diary of sorts.

My godfather was my next door neighbor growing up in Iowa. He was a dentist, photographer, master gardener, Air Force vet and grandpa to everyone. He was there for all my birthday parties as a little girl, at my baptism, First Communion and my confirmation. He took the most beautiful pictures of me in my prom dress standing in front of a silver evergreen in his front yard. I am looking at those pictures now and I still feel the beauty that I felt that evening. He always grew pumpkins for us to decorate at Halloween, sweet corn and strawberries and cherry tomatoes that I called tommy's toes when i was a tiny tot. He used to pass out toothbrushes, travel toothpaste and a box of raisins, which he lovingly referred to as nature's candy. He is the reason why I love raisins.

He was batting leukemia for the last few years and I take solace that he is no longer in pain. We weren't expecting him to die, but we knew that he did not have much time left.I am not the most religious person but I firmly believe that he is watching over me in heaven now, close to God and our Lady. He was a surrogate father to me, always filling in when my dad was traveling and I had to go to a dad's day event. Him and his wife always came to all of our recitals and plays and my band concerts. I feel slightly orphaned in a way because even though I moved away, I always kept in touch and would visit with them every time I was in Iowa to visit family.

I was so upset that I found this beautiful card at Walgreens and I was writing a letter to his wife and family and it took me four tries because these big tear drops kept falling and I didn't want ink smudges on my letter. I will be fine, my heart just hurts a lot right now, as it does when something like this happens.

Song of the day: On Eagle's Wings performed by Michael Joncas (his version sounds the closest to the way we always sung it in Mass)