From a Final Goodbye to another Goodbye

On Tues, Dec 18, my family gathered at my mom’s house to have Christmas dinner and then to say a final goodbye to my father as Dec. 18 would have been my parent’s 70th anniversary.

During the day, which was sunny and crisp, people went out to the dock and dropped some of dad’s ashes into Smith Creek, as he had requested. Dad used to periodically tell John to just push him off the dock (half joking) so John wanted to put some ashes on dad’s wheelchair and push it off the end of the dock as a tribute and to make my mom laugh-but my mom roundly nixed that idea.

After dinner, we all told stories and then watched a video with pictures throughout his life. One by one after the video, everyone took a shot of Irish whiskey in dad’s honor. As a grand finale, John sprinkled some of dad’s ashes on top of a firework box full of mortars and shot dad into the sky in a stunning display. I think dad would have liked that.

On the morning of dad's memorial, I found out that Rob Nordman, my ex Rick’s younger brother, lost his battle with cancer the night of Dec. 17.

Rob and I were exact opposites both philosophically and politically. He was a staunch Republican who liked guns. I am as liberal as they come. Rob was a devoutly religious man, I am not- neither man nor devout. Rob and I argued on FB all the time; his friends used to say to him, ‘you all must hate each other.’ He always got a kick out of that because we were great buddies. If nothing else, I hope our friendship will remind people that it is quite possible that you can be friends with, and care deeply about, someone with whom you have major differences with. Rob was like a younger brother to me and I will miss him tremendously. I was able to see him about a week ago and am so glad I was able to spend some time with him before he moved on.

My heart goes out to his entire family; his wife, Robin; children Savannah, Christina, Michael and Johnathon; Sue and Will, Rob’s wonderful parents; Rick, Ginny, and Chuck, Rob’s siblings, and all the extended family too numerous to mention. My thoughts are with you all.

Fuck Cancer.