One of Dad's Special Places

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my dad's death. To reflect on his life I climbed my favorite mountain and made a special place for him. The rock in the middle is officially now one more of Dad's special places. The others are on my other favorite mountain which I try to hike once a week and on a mountain over looking Missoula, MT. I put something personal of his under this rock and on the other mountains. This rock sits on an overlook I rest at when I back country ski each winter. Even when he was in his early 80s he insisted he would get in good enough shape to hike this mountain. That was not something his body would have ever been able to do but he still wanted to think it would. Even to the end he really still saw his body as something that just needed fixing up. He never accepted that it was simply and old body and was not able to do the things he thought it should. I think the day he died he went quickly because he finally did recognize that at best he would never be in the minimum health he thought one should have to be living. I believe for him living a prisoner in your own body was something worse than death. His next step had he lived longer was to go on dialysis - he was still debating whether he would do it or not.

Below is the view looking out from the rock. In the distance is Lake Champlain and the Vermont Mountains.In the end Dad had been in good enough health to still drive and get around. (Not that he should have been driving) All within a couple of days he went from that to death. He had no desire to die and planned to live a lot longer despite numerous health problems and few medical solutions, but how his last week of life went was just how he would have wanted it to go...and he did almost make it to 88 years of life. He had also told me in the weeks prior to that he had a blessed life and all anyone could have hoped for. He loved his family, his jobs, his friends and many passions...all that mattered to him.