Father left this world

[2manyrocks]

View attachment 759699
My great aunt wrote on boarder of this one. That was a big help. My GG grandparents, and my G grandmother on back right

Traveling photographers used to go through rural communities making photos of families in their Sunday best outside of their homes. In the larger cities, family photos were made in studios until Kodak came out in the late 1890s or so with box cameras and film development services that shifted things away from professional photographers to home photographers.

Then digital cameras came along roughly 100 years later and did Kodak in.

I suspect not many smartphone camera pics will survive compared to printed photos. Phone dies...can't get the pics off....no backups. Heirs won't have access to the old smartphones for one reason or another. Incompatible file storage or operating system formats. Hence, my view is to print important photos.

I apologize to Sigarms for going off on this tangent. When someone important to us passes, we naturally remember their lives and their importance to us. It's a time when making some notes of our recollections while they are fresh in our minds can help us to remember them better as the years pass.

 

[MossRoad]

I use to collect baseball cards to!

As for Heaven and Hades, I'm a pessimist at heart. If I plan it that way and it happens, Its expected on my end. If it works out better than expected, I'm ahead of the game LOL Never been to a funeral yet where the minister has said the departed is going to Hades.

Way I see it, if I want to collect scriptures, I'll get a Bible. Wait, I have one!

I have. It wasn't pretty. He pretty much told half the congregation they were going to hell. He's been the officiant for at least 6 weddings and funerals that we've gone to and he always goes off on the crowd. Nice guy, though.

 

[Pixguy]

I'm very sorry for your loss Sig. My MIL fell and broke her hip at 92. They performed surgery but she passed 2 days later due to the shock. You did the right thing. RIP pops.

 

[Sigarms]

I have. It wasn't pretty. He pretty much told half the congregation they were going to hell.

Can't help but wonder when God made him the Judge.

 

[Hay Dude]

I used to drag race motorcycle. I wouldn't want to die that way.

You used to lifeguard as I did. Would you want to drown? Foot around an anchor line in shallow water? Yikes! I wouldn't.

He died doing what he loved, skydiving: plummeting to earth after his parachute didn't open.

Nope. I don't want to see it coming, not even for a few seconds. I want to go in my sleep, or be hit by lightning, space debris maybe.

Maybe my mind will change as I get older and reflect on my life, but for now, make it quick.

Everyone wants to die in their sleep. Unfortunately, we don’t get to choose. His father very somberly told me “everything was fine, until it wasn’t. He struck a solid object doing 200MPH.
It was over before he knew it was over.”
I think the comparison to drowning is a bit off-kilter? It takes like 2 minutes to drown and you are very aware of what is happening, versus striking a immovable object at 200MPH in 2 seconds?

Anyway, we can go on comparing what would be worse.
And apologies to Sigarms for being a bit off topic.

 

[Sigarms]

I think not seeing it coming is the best way if possible. Just don't like the though of having to pick up body pieces.

I just remember a hearing a ambulance around my road for the first time here in years. Turns out the farmer down the road took a gun to himself because of brain cancer. Bigger question is it having courage or being a coward to determine your own fate when the time is with certainty due to a disease on your end?

Use to do a lot of whitewater kayaking. There was a part of me that wouldn't have minded dying doing what I love, but in hindsight, as mentioned, drowning isn't the way I'd want to go.

Per when you're in a hospital, I think part of the issue is the medical profession's "duty" to keep you alive, particularly when your time is fast approaching.

I do know I have a DNR listed on myself, as does my wife. Seems like if you do not have a DNR, it only prolongs the suffering in a hospital and any wishes of the family can be bypassed. My father had a DNR, and the doctor and I seemed to be on the same page with the morphine.

Anyway, we can go on comparing what would be worse.
And apologies to Sigarms for being a bit off topic.

Sorry, you were saying

As long as no one calls my father negative names, no apologies
needed LOL

 

[MossRoad]

My father in-law had a DNR and a purple DNR bracelet on his wrist. However, he was such a tough old dude that they never had to use it. They'd tell us they didn't think he'd last much longer, then a couple days late he'd be home from the hospital sweeping the garage and driveway! I think he was the model for the Energizer Bunny!

 

[MossRoad]

My mom and dad have been gone since 88 and 95 respectively. A lot of other relatives and friends have passed over the years as well. What I've found, and this may not apply to everyone, so it's just a personal thing, is that the longer they are gone, the more favorable memories persist and get stronger, and the least favorable memories fade away. I think of them often and usually end with a smile. It was tough at first, but it gets easier as time goes on.

 

[ultrarunner]

In life's transitions I think no longer having living parents is huge and really brings it all into focus...

There are still times when a fleeting thought crosses my mind wanting to share something with Dad and he has been gone 20+ years...

Maybe this is exactly how it is suppose to me when loved ones live on in our hearts and minds...

 

[MossRoad]

In life's transitions I think no longer having living parents is huge and really brings it all into focus...

There are still times when a fleeting thought crosses my mind wanting to share something with Dad and he has been gone 20+ years...

Maybe this is exactly how it is suppose to me when loved ones live on in our hearts and minds...

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Also, what to do when all your mentors die? Grow up?

 

[ultrarunner]

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Also, what to do when all your mentors die? Grow up?

Do right by their memory is the most we can expect...

On a side note Dad loved Kung Fu...

 

[Big Barn]

In life's transitions I think no longer having living parents is huge and really brings it all into focus...

There are still times when a fleeting thought crosses my mind wanting to share something with Dad and he has been gone 20+ years...

Maybe this is exactly how it is suppose to me when loved ones live on in our hearts and minds...

agreed.

and mine has been gone 40 1/2 years.

 

[Yander]

View attachment 759699
My great aunt wrote on boarder of this one. That was a big help. My GG grandparents, and my G grandmother on back right

This is a cool photo, interesting how everyone is looking in a different direction. I count three different directions they are collectively looking. Must have been a group taking photos.

 

[Yander]

Sorry, to year about your father but I understand your feeling of relief for your dad's sake. My mother went in her sleep 2 years ago and though never easy to see a parent leave the earth, we were thankful it went the way it did.

 

[2manyrocks]

This is a cool photo, interesting how everyone is looking in a different direction. I count three different directions they are collectively looking. Must have been a group taking photos.

I tend to think this is a professional photo from the late 1800's in which the photographer posed each individual to best capture their faces from the photographer's perspective. Everyone did as requested except when it came to "Uncle Archie," the little boy who looked directly at the camera.

Some clues as to why it is a pro photo of the era are the special border that surrounds the picture. The choice of clothing. The posing.

The even lighting suggests it was made inside a studio. I don't see any eyes squinting against sunlight or hot spots in the lighting.

The gentlemen in the front are in sharp focus. The focus on the ladies is a little soft. Tends to suggest the photographer was trying to squeeze the most light by opening his lens up indoors, but at the cost of losing depth of field for the second row.

 

[Torvy]

Picked up the death certificate over the weekend.

Immediate cause of death respiratory failure. Secondary, Right lower lobe pneumonia.

This is the funny part... Question on the certificate asks if tobacco use contributed to death. Answer - Probably.

The guy lived to the ripe old age of 90, and he stopped smoking close to 50 years ago when he got out of the service. Go figure.

Again, we had the same dad. Mine smoked until 1983. Hasn't smoked since. I don't expect he will be around much longer. Peace.

 

[Sigarms]

Again, we had the same dad. Mine smoked until 1983. Hasn't smoked since. I don't expect he will be around much longer. Peace.

Yours ever use the two phrases?

"I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it"

"we can do this two ways, either you can stand like a man and take it, or you're going to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, but either way you're going to get it"

I can say I deserved those two phrases whenever he used them on me LOL

 

[Sigarms]

My mom and dad have been gone since 88 and 95 respectively. A lot of other relatives and friends have passed over the years as well. What I've found, and this may not apply to everyone, so it's just a personal thing, is that the longer they are gone, the more favorable memories persist and get stronger, and the least favorable memories fade away. I think of them often and usually end with a smile. It was tough at first, but it gets easier as time goes on.

Honestly, that's the way I feel about my dad now, a smile.

I'm more happy that he made a big impact in my one sons life. He (son) finally bought his own car yesterday with his own money (left the house early afternoon, didn't get home until late night as it was a 2.5 hr drive each way) and my son was asking how we could save my fathers license plate. He likes to save them, and this car we took up to NY on vacation. We have our ticket at the aquarium for parking when we visited Niagara falls, and on the ticket has my dads license plate number (verification it's your car), and he has that saved in his scrap book. Wanted to make certain he'd get the plate that would match the ticket of his grandfathers car.

Although I was a butthole as a teen, and my parents couldn't wait for me to move out, when I hit my early to mid 20's, I truly understood how much my parents loved me.

 

[Torvy]

Yours ever use the two phrases?

"I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it"

"we can do this two ways, either you can stand like a man and take it, or you're going to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, but either way you're going to get it"

I can say I deserved those two phrases whenever he used them on me LOL

Yes he did. And i, too, deserved what I got. Many children of the 30s grew up hard and expected their children to absorb those lessons. I think we are better for it (though my teenage self would disagree)

 

[Sigarms]

Yes he did. And i, too, deserved what I got. Many children of the 30s grew up hard and expected their children to absorb those lessons. I think we are better for it (though my teenage self would disagree)

Funny, growing up, I always thought we were a poor family. After my dad retired from the military, we lived in a smaller house than most of my friends, never bought a new family car, always used, and in general I never got the cool expensive Christmas gifts that all my cousins got.

When I was out on my own living about 6 hours away from my parents in my late 20's, told them I was going to buy a "truck" car as I could afford the loan. Mom told me that they would cover the loan and I would pay them directly, and they wanted to do it so they could save me interest as they didn't want me paying interest to the bank. I told my mom that I couldn't do that to them, as I didn't want to break them financially, and that I could afford it. She just laughed and gave me a glimpse of the checkbook. The point was made on me that my parents came from poor coal mining immigrants, but that if you saved and wasn't a fool with your money, you can do all right by yourself.

I also laugh because whenever I lived at home as an adult (mostly college), my parents charged me a pretty penny for rent and held me to it. What I didn't understand at the time was my parents were saving it for me.

Got to give credit to my one 17 year old. He bought his first used car yesterday, paid cash for it with his own money, saved 13k working his job the last two years (still working even when school starts next couple of weeks), but he only spent 7k for the car as he didn't want to wipe out his bank account. We didn't want him spending the money at all and didn't think it was a great desicion, but he's been a good kid, worked his butt off, stays straight and narrow, so if that's what he wanted to do with his own money, were weren't going to stop him. I have the feeling that he just wanted to be proud and own it all on his own with his own money, and that may not be a bad thing.

My son even says with a grin that he's a cheap ******* like gramps LOL

I'm just glad my boys got to know my dad. Never knew either of my grandfathers as they both died in their 50's in the coal mines.