Four days after my Dad died, he would have turned 60. Yeah, that sucks... right? SIXTY!! Too young to die... well, that's not the point of the post. We struggled with how to "celebrate" what would have been such a momentous day in his life. Truth be told, we had been planning a big surprise party for both my Dad and my brother, who would turn 40 just a week after my Dad's 60th! Those plans were, obviously, scrapped.
We decided the best way to honor my Dad on his birthday was to be together. We invited my Uncle Ken and Aunt Cheryl and called our favorite Mexican food restaurant. Ever since my childhood, Manuel's has been our restaurant of choice. We ate there weekly during my childhood and it was my Dad's favorite restaurant. Really, it was the only place he liked to eat.
It's not easy (or fun) to celebrate the birthday of someone who doesn't show up at the party... and even harder when he can't. I think we just really wanted to be together and didn't want to let the day just go by. We also wanted a moment of peace before the funeral which was planned for the next day. We enjoyed dinner as much as we could, focusing mostly on the kids and visiting with Uncle Ken and Aunt Cheryl. We all knew who was missing but we didn't talk about it much.
After dinner the three of us "kids" and our families met at my Brother's house to preview the video my cousin Lindsey (very graciously) offered to create for us of pictures of my Dad. It was a fitting night to watch the video. It was beautiful and we all were speechless as we watched the images of our Dad/Grandpa flash across the screen. Lindsey couldn't have done it any better!!
It was a tough day and we all knew the days to come wouldn't get any easier.
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