How does a daughter or a son celebrate Father’s Day when their father lives in heaven?   Tomorrow will be our first Father’s Day since Dad passed away.  My siblings and I are having a hard time thinking about the day.  How do you honor and celebrate someone you love, but is no longer here on earth with you on such a special day.  How do you avoid being sad so as not to ruin the celebration for all the other fathers still here?

I Wish

I wish we could have had some other holiday first, this is the first holiday without him and it is Father’s Day. (Oops…I guess we had Memorial Day, but it was a blur.) I know every holiday will be tough the first couple years.  But Father’s Day…oh my!   We often tried to get together as a family on this day.  My Dad loved us to all be together.    I think our family was the accomplishment he was most proud of.

Here we are with my Dad on Father’s Day 2013.  We all went out to eat.

I love this picture because I can see the sparkle in his eyes.

Last year we each visited, but not as a group.  Neal had college orientation, we all had something going on so visited individually.  So No group pictures of last year.

Blessed

We were so blessed to have him for as long as we did. I just wish we could have had him for one more celebration.  One more time to tell him he was a great Dad!  One more I love you!

If your Dad is still living, call or visit him.  Be sure he knows you think he is special. Remember to tell him, “I Love You.”   You never know when you might not get another opportunity to thank him for being your father.

We have decided to still get together in Dad’s honor and memory, but it will be tough!  It has just been a little over a month since he went to heaven.  Our grief is still so raw.  As a family we need to get together and remember the happy times and the wonderful father and man he was.

We will be doing what would have made Dad happy if he were here.

If you haven’t seen this previous  post I wrote about Missing My Dad, you might enjoy the memories.