To add to the drama of this particular summer, just as Faith was starting to recover I got a call from my mom that my dad was in the ICU and ironically had pneumonia (a bit more serious than Faith's). I ended up spending a week in Phoenix with her and he never left the ICU or was fully awake while I was there. Unfortunately he didn't make it, and a week later I was on my way back to help my mom get the paperwork and the memorial sorted out.

Going through photos and paperwork, I found out so much that I never knew about him and his family. He was a Pearl Harbor Survivor (I knew that) but after the attack when he was stationed in the South Pacific, his plane with 6 other guys was shot down - 2 didn't survive and the others swam to the shore of a little obscure island and were taken care of by the natives, only the chief's son spoke english and they eventually were rescued by the navy. He was basically raised by a step mom and a step dad, his real dad left his mom when he was 3 and his biological mom died of tuberculosis when he was 12. And, I found a picture of him on a sailboat that he built, other than a dollhouse for me when I was little, I don't remember him ever building anything. The other photo is of him in Greece with his taxi driver, he made friends wherever he went, I love that photo!