Missing Dad

(Editorial, September 1, 2018, by Cirina Catania) Feeling nostalgic today.

I’m in my Dad’s home office, packing his papers, awards, medals, photographs, maps. It’s been over 20 years since his funeral and Mom has kept his office exactly the way it was the day he died.

This is harder than I thought, only because there are so many questions I would ask him if he were alive today.
He was a veteran of three wars: WWII, Korea and Vietnam, but mostly, I just knew him as my Dad, the commanding officer and joke-teller, the man who loved his family and was proud of his Sicilian immigrant parents, the man who loved his wife and children unconditionally and who I constantly tested as I insisted on spreading my creative wings.

Turns out, we are a lot alike.

I miss you, Dad, so much. My heart hurts today. I came downstairs to have a cup of coffee and am sitting in the sun room with windows on three sides. The squirrels are jousting, a red Cardinal hops on the wet grass and I think about all the days you sat right here and looked out over your backyard.

It is raining outside and, somehow, that rain has reached my eyes where it is spilling on my cheeks.

I am blessed with a beautiful life. Thank you.

(Cirina Catania, September 1, 2018, Carlisle, PA_