Douglas M. Harrington
October 1, 1966 - November 14, 2006
Doug and my Dad, his Granddad, 1969.
October 1, 1966 - November 14, 2006
Doug and my Dad, his Granddad, 1969.When I talk to Doug today, I will tell him that this first of his birthdays without him is still a day of joy and thanks.
Some family will gather at the bench today, and do their best to make that true.
Some family will gather at the bench today, and do their best to make that true.
9 comments:
Birthdays are tough. Please consider me to be at the bench, too.
Very nice, Sherwood.
And yes, if you could consider me to be at the bench, too, it would mean a lot.
ronnie
I am guessing that the couple of weeks leading up to this date were harder than the day itself turned out to be. Having a plan for the day was such a good idea. Good to have one of "those days" past. Well done.
other Ronnie
"other" Ronnie, you would have guessed right.
Days from now to November 14th will be cloaked in increasing dusk, memories of deeper darkness, until we are all through it to whatever release we have.
And, by "we", I mean the whole family, not just me or me and Diane.
It is a hard time right now.
As it should be.
The main thing I remember about that first year is that I don't remember much about that first year.
other Ronnie
Over on his blog (the 9/26 entry about "Rachel's Dad"), Brian Fies said something about family being "the stewards of memory and tradition," and about "the responsibility within families to tell our unique stories and pass them down."
Your site and your blog are wonderful documents of how you guys do it.
Thank you, Ruth. That's what we're trying to do (in ways that this blog is only a small part of) for Grace, to help her remember her Dad and understand why so many of her family and friends keep talking about this "Doug" person.
I hope that, ten years from now, when she's a teenager, she will not only know who her father was, but (and this is going to be hard!) not be irritated by draggy family always bringing him up.
So far, of course, not an issue.
I'm glad you corrected the date. I was going to say something about it but thought perhaps it was in some way intentional. Didn't like to think about that too much but I know that we are all different and have our very different needs. You do whatever it is that you need to do and it's nobody else's business.
O'Ronnie
I can't tell you how many times I must have looked at the date as it was originally ("November 14, 2007") before I noticed the error in the year, but it must have been a lot.
Odd.
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