My very own SUPERMAN

Hi Dad,

I cannot believe it is 11 years today. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about you and wish you were here. It breaks my heart that you will never meet your beautiful grandsons, as they are such a joy and such amazing little boys. Sometimes I feel like you are talking to me through Charlie, especially when he wants to hear all about anything Peter or I have done that day. He always says, “Tell me about your day, Mommy” when I pick him up from school. I wish that Peter knew you, because I know you two would have been so close.

Peter asked me today to tell him things about you that he may not know, and I have so many memories that it is hard to narrow it down. I know I have told him so much already, but I thought I would share with him the little things that I will never forget and that will always remind me of you. I also wanted to write on the blog about you. We recently went to the viewing of our sweet neighbor Dwain, and his daughter had written him a letter years ago, and it was in a “Thank you” format. I liked it so much, that I would like to do the same…

Thank you for always having Tic Tacs in your pocket, so we always knew who was going up or down the stairs.

Thank you for playing “Mambo #5” each morning to try to wake Dominic up, as I know it annoyed him immensely. We will never not think of you when we hear that song.

Thank you for saying “it burns so good” every time you took that first sip of Coke. It made me giggle each time.

Thank you for giving me fluoride pills until I was about 15. I am convinced that is why I still do not have a cavity.

Thank you for always letting me talk the entire walk when we would go on walks at night. I think I miss that most of all.

Thank you for making me campaign with you and go door-to-door handing out flyers for Palmer De Paulis, Jim Bradley, etc. Teaching me about politics at a young age was smart of you.

Thank you for reading the newspaper front to back every day. I was convinced that you knew always everything going on the world, and that you could always answer my questions.

Thank you for the downtown walking tours of SLC. I wish I could remember all of the facts and all of the history of the buildings downtown. I would love to do the same for Charlie and Ryan.

Thank you for our date to the Capitol to see the Christmas Tree and then lunch at Snappy’s. It was amazing how you could make Maury smile. I am not sure anyone else was capable of that.

Thank you for having lunch with me once a week. I loved sitting in your office and eating a kay-sa-dee-yah from Scott’s or wherever you picked up lunch that day.

Thank you for going to the Daddy-Daughter night for Pi Phi even though it was at the dreaded Olive Garden, as I know you hated the meal!

Thank you for always driving on the fieldtrips at Cosgriff and for always being a “lunch lady” with the other moms. I always knew I had the best dad!

Thank you for letting me drive the new Jaguar home from the dealership, while you drove my car. I will always remember you saying, “It is just a car, and that is why we have insurance” when I said “but it is new and so nice, and what if I crash it?. The meaning of that has always stuck with me…and I drove about 20 mph that day, but what a great car to drive!

Thank you for teaching me the value of the dollar by making pay you for my first car and then revealing, years later, that you put all of the money back into my savings account. And also, for making me believe that if I had less than $200 in my checking account that the bank would call and yell at me. Poor Dominic never got to learn these lessons. Ha!

Thank you for the trips to Fred Meyer. We still laugh about how Dom and I would rather go to the grocery store with you on a Friday than out with our friends at times. You always made every experience fun.

I think I could go on and on, but you always knew how I felt. Thank you most of all for being the most amazing dad, for loving me unconditionally, for teaching us what it means to be truly altruistic (and some do not believe that can exist), and for always listening. You will always be my hero! I love you si, si.

And thank you, Peter, for helping me remember all of these wonderful things.