Post #160....2019

Today marks 4 years since my father passed away.  He cheated death more than once that I can recall and possibly more times than that.  Once when I was young he impaled his leg with a rusty nail while I think making a sand box for us kids.  He had a blue line traveling up his leg and finally went to the doctor in time (before the blood poisoning went too far).

He also cut his eye badly when a piece of machinery broke off at the resister company he co-owned with 3 other men. I don't recall what exactly broke but I think it was while in operation so it flew with some power behind it.  He could have been blinded in that eye but he recovered. And again I don't know what all broke but if had been more pieces of the equipment it could have been so much worse.  I may not have all the facts of this event straight but I do remember vividly seeing him in the rocking chair holding his head (as he weathered the pain of his eye healing).

Then there is the obvious cheat when he was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma when he was in his early 70's (I believe).  It was either stage 3 or stage 4. Sorry I didn't write down the dates and all the details but it was when he and mom were still living in PA so it was probably about 20-25 years ago.  He beat the cancer and had a full recovery from that.

So in my opinion he was a great escape artist from death until it must have been his time 4 years ago when he was nearly 90 years old.

When we were planning his funeral we came up with the idea of having decks of cards made with his name and dates of birth/death to hand out at the funeral.  It was a memorable gift as I have never been to a funeral where they handed out decks of cards.  Dad loved to play bridge and that is what he spent the majority of his last few years enjoying.  Here's a photo I took today in memory of him.