| >> | >>455250
He died of a 12cm round cancerous growth which developed in one of his lungs. He went peacefully in his sleep, without any pain, or choking, or fear. I thank a personal higher power that I believe in for this.
He was a soldier in the Vietnam war, and he was stationed for the most part in the central highlands, a place my uncle (stationed elsewhere) referred to often as "the shit." Dad told me many war stories over the course of my life. Most of them I don't want to share publicly.
He was a private man, having no close friends at the end of his life. He enjoyed urban gardening and growing, making high-yields of tomatoes, eggplant, squash, onion, garlic, various chili peppers, along with some herbs. Eventually, towards the end of his life, he invested in a temperature-controlled pro-lighting indoor closet grow area, and brought three lovely ladies to maturity and harvest.
He was also very passionate about caring for miniature trees. Over the course of his life he developed his own style that was quite different than traditional Eastern bonsai. My favorite of his miniature trees was a plum tree he had for many years. Since my early adolescence and up until my last visit, he kept that old plum tree healthy, happy, tiny, and extremely pleasing to the eye.
In his youth, he was a dog person, until a neighbor poisoned his dog "Whiskey". That was long before I was born. I will always remember him a cat person. Teaching them cute little tricks that would impress my eventual wife, etc.
He was mechanically-oriented, (worked the motor pool at base camp when not on patrol) and a serious tinkerer. Always was. When I was a boy he taught me how to reverse polarity of a servo by spinning it in reverse, enough to light up an LED. He also helped me create a secret desk alarm out of soldering a switch to a fire alarm and affixing it to the inside of a sliding desk drawer when I was a boy.
When I was a young boy, he had a severe alcohol problem, and my mother eventually divorced him, but as it played out over the years the two would never fully part. It was a love/hate relationship to the end between them, but the last words he muttered to my mother was a faint "I love you." The next morning he was gone. |
