If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.....

Well, this is the second time we've had to celebrate your birthday without you........ I think of all the things you've missed since you left so abruptly -- BB's baptism, BB's basketball, football and baseball games, LB's first day of first grade, his first attempt at sports (T-ball) ......birthdays, school programs, Easter egg hunts, Christmas trees, the pumpkin patch, and the infamous fight for the leg on Turkey day. I didn't even make parkerhouse rolls this year because you weren't here to enjoy them. (20 other people would have, but it just didn't seem the same.)

Dang it Dad, I miss you. The boys miss you. Not a day has gone by yet that they haven't remembered you in some sweet way. Like you dancing a jig in your new Scooby Doo boxers at Christmas. Or how handsome you always looked in your Sunday best. We can even remember how you always smelled by stealing a sniff from one of your old cologne bottles Grandma handed down.......

It's selfish, I know, but what I wouldn't give to have you back. You were taken so very suddenly from us......no chance for good-byes or I love you's. I guess I always thought you would live forever, even though you had been sick for 25 years. It just wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Happy Birthday Daddy. I love you. I miss you. I hope there are burgers in Heaven........