Remembering My Father In Law

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning as I stood at the gas pump freezing my behind off.  It was a great way to start my day.  I thought this weekend was a perfect autumn weekend, perhaps the best of the season so far.  The days were cool and the evenings cold. There was lots of sunshine, blue skies, and the leaf color was at its peak.  I did a lot of driving around this weekend and everywhere I drove was beautiful.

 

Today is the 10^th anniversary of my father-in-law’s death.  He was the first of the parents to go.  We did not know it at the time of his death but Chloe was on her way and she arrived in the summer of 2004.  I was with my father-in-law when he died and I gave the eulogy at his funeral.  We could not have been more different.  He was a man of his times, a conservative Republican, and he lived and worked in a “Mad Men” kind of world.  He was probably not very impressed when his oldest daughter brought me home for dinner.  Despite our differences we grew to have a mutual respect for one another.  He knew I was a bleeding heart liberal.  We frequently discussed politics and sometimes we did this after too many glasses of wine.  Even though we frequently disagreed, he always accepted me as I am, and I know he believed I had character.  I was blessed with a wonderful father in law and mother in law.  They were like parents to me and they treated me like a son.  They taught me everything I know about sophistication.  My father-in-law once looked at me after an expensive family meal and said, “I should never have told you about wine and shrimp”!  He and my mother in law were wonderful people and I still miss them very much.