Happy Birthday dad

Dad as popeye at a party in the mid nineties
Today was my dad's birthday, our birthdays are exactly a week apart so often we shared a joint celebration. Any excuse to have a family get together. 

He died seven months before his 60th birthday and regardless of the years that have passed he is still greatly missed.  His name was Jimmy Valentine, he was the kind of person that everyone liked, not a bad word was said about him.

Every year we ensure that we are together on his birthday, that we visit and say a little prayer and tell him how much he is missed.  His final resting place is really pretty by a pond and today it snowed so everywhere was beautiful with that first touch of snow.  He loved nature and the fact that around 20 ducks followed us to his graveside, like they were paying their respects rather than looking for bread, seemed like a sign.

Our grandmother, my mum, two of dad's sisters, me and my sisters went to put flowers on the grave.  My gran (89) asked us to sing; we actually sang happy birthday to him, goodness knows what anyone might have thought if they'd heard us.  After that we all went for lunch and chatted about Christmas plans and memories of my dad.

Today was all about family, we finally spent the evening with all his grandchildren watching Harry Potter at the pictures.  The kids were well behaved, the film good and my mum spent the day surrounded by her family on a day when she was upset on having to leave my dad behind at his resting place.  I can't say anything other than I hope he was watching over us and I think he would have said this has been a good day too.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Brassed Off (1996)- Danny's speech

My new obsession

Shoe of the week