At The End

In this dead calm time of year before the year changes, I always find myself sad.  It’s dark, it’s cold, nothing happens.  Everything just waits.

Everything waits for the year to be over.  The year that everyone has grown tired of.  The year that has over stayed it’s welcome.  We want to leave it behind, be done with it, we want closure.

For me, 2009 was a wretched hag of a year.  I won’t mourn it’s passing.  In fact, if I could beat it to death and set it on fire, I would.

So I’ll just wait, with everybody else.  This week will end, and the year with it. Everything passes.

My Father in law, 87, passed away December 22 at Veterans Memorial Hospital following a short illness.  Born in Missouri 1922, He  was survived by a lot of folks who wouldn’t appreciate me mentioning their names.

He  grew up in Missouri, graduated from High School and attended Northeast Missouri State where he played basketball.   He left college at the start of WWII to join the U.S. Marine Corp volunteering for the new Special Forces group- Carlson’s Raiders. He served 4 years with the 2^nd Raider Battalion “H” Company battling through the South Pacific seeing action on Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Japan.  After the war he returned to Missouri and married M in 1947.  He completed his college degree, receiving his BS ed. in Industrial Arts and English.  He then completed Refrigeration and Electric school in Kansas City before opening “Refrigeration and Electric” on the south side of the square.  He retired after 40 years in business and during that time he was an active member of the  Volunteer Fire Department, Chamber of Commerce, Masons, and  American Legion Post  and also served several terms as Mayor.

For the past 22 years, he and his wife have been spending the winter in AZ on property his family homesteaded in the 1930’s.  He loved the desert and spent every minute he could there.  He was pleased that his Marine Raiders Buddies were able to come each spring to the desert for a reunion.

A military honors service will be held at the National Cemetery  on January 7, 2010.  A memorial service will also be held on Memorial Day weekend at The Funeral Home.

Something like that will be appearing in next week’s paper.  I did some editing on this version that I share with you.  It’s good that the funeral home writes these things.  Obits never capture who a person was, they just tell you what they did.

He was my husband’s dad.  A good one.  I wish I could thank him for that.