Today, We Lost a Good Man

Today, we lost a good man.

He was kind, he was quiet, he was handy with tools, he was clever and funny. He worked hard. He taught himself guitar, then created bands and toured the country. He fell in love with my mom in an instant and shared a marriage that spanned more than 4 decades. They enjoyed different cities but they came alive on the Cape and in the Berkshires. He taught me guitar and would jam along even as I fumbled through chords for years. He was patient. He taught himself to cook, then bought a restaurant and fed our town. He treated strangers like friends and friends like family, surrounding himself with people and stories. He had four daughters and many more unofficially adopted children, and over his lifetime, he had a menagerie of dogs, cats, birds, and hamsters. He built things: a house on the Cape for my mom so they could start a family. He fixed things. He listened. He was a man of few words in a loud, highly opinionated family, but when he spoke, you listened. He was so many things I aspire to be.

Some of you knew him personally, some of you just knew him through me. Thank you to everyone who sent hundreds of cards, emails, prayers, gifts, flowers, food. Sometimes they made him laugh, sometimes they made him cry. But they all made him, and us, feel loved.

I wanted to take a minute and tell you about him. Today, after a long, unfair fight, the world lost a good man. But he's not suffering anymore.

I love you, Dad.