The Kind Of Dad You Only Dream About

Some weeks ago I unexpectedly lost one of my best friends, my father. He was the kind of Dad you only dream about. Growing up he would be passing me and my brothers candy under the kitchen table, begging to get me in a car on the race track by age 11 and knowingly letting us skip class. He built us the most amazing go karts and dollhouses for Christmas and would tell my Mom he was dropping us off at Sunday School but really would just take us to Toys R Us...anything a kid could want in a father we had. The things you dreamed about but most parents frowned upon my father embraced. My Dad had the kind of humor a comedian would kill for. No matter how serious a situation was, he would be able to make you laugh. I know everyone says that there parents are the coolest but mine really were. He was a best friend to not only me but everyone around him. When I moved to California my friends would still stop by my house just to hang out with them. He was one of the smartest, hardest working, knowledgeable people I have ever met in my life. He was truly a selfless person you could count on for anything.

I have been the glitter queen my whole life, ever since I could walk. Everywhere my dad looked there was glitter...on his clothing and boat, in his hair and on his car...and it drove him nuts up until the last time I saw him. You better believe I sprinkled some rainbow glitter on his suit before we closed the coffin. I couldn't let him get away from me that easy.

My Dads whole life was the water. He was a professional boat racer in his 20s and we have been taking sailing trips for as long as i can remember. Every weekend was spent out on the river no matter what. Everytime I see the ocean all I will be able to think of is him. Everyone who was lucky enough to have met him knows what a tremendous loss this is.

Death is not the end, its the start of a new beginning. We are changing all the time from a baby to a child, from a child to an adult, from young to old...death is just another one of these transformations. During all these changes we are still there, the same person. There is no death in this world, only change. A river always seems to be the same, yet the say, you cannot step in the same river twice. If we did not have so much fear of death maybe we could take it in stride, perhaps even celebrate it as a coming home. Its so easy to forget but we are not our bodies, they are nothing but our vehicles to exist on this earth. Our life on this realm may be limited but our energy is infinite.

Its not a goodbye Dad, its a see you later.

Love Audrey xo