Hello everyone

There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to state the facts and however this comes out is the way it comes out.

My father has been ill for a few months and has not told family about it. He's 80.  About 6 weeks ago I got a call from fellow members of his Legion branch that he wasn't looking too well and I should get in touch with him.

I did.  I found out that he was in pretty serious condition.  I travelled to my home town of Melfort Saskatchewan Canada to see him, which is about an 8 hour drive for me.  This was on Easter weekend in March.  My sister happened to be visiting her husbands family about 2 hours away for which she had flown from VAncouver island.  She drove up as well.

The following week, friends took dad to the hospital.

My other sister h appened to be in the country from Vienna Austria and her and her hsuband made the trip from Ottawa to Melfort as well.  They're both physcians.  When they ygot to the hospital, they advised us to make our way up here asap. 

We drove up and I've now spent the past two and a half weeks at his beside.

Dad passed away on Saturday with my sister and I there with him.  He knew we were there and that was comforting to us all.

Services are this week so I'll be here for awhile longer yet.

I'ts been quite wonderful to meet his friends who have shared with us their stories of dad.  What they've learned from him and all that he meant to them.  When they found out who I was, they all said how much he talked about me to them which really stunned me.  We've found out more about dad in the past few weeks than I 've ever known.

Over the past two weeks dad had his good days and his bad.  Some days sleeping mostly, waking for some meal times and others not, while other days he was awake and alert and able to comunicate with us.  The day before he passed was a fantastic day.  I had mentioned to a friend that evening that we had such a good time with him that day, all eating our lunches with him while he ate his, joking, laughing  and I even went home, got his dog Cindy and brought her in for a visit.  My sister and I are very thankful for the time we had with him these past few weeks.

This turned out longer than I had planned, so I apologize.  My intent was just to let you know where I've been and why the sudden silence from me.  I think this has been good for me to write and share.  I realize you may be wondering why I would share something so personal with you and the answer is that for a lot of you, I have come to know yo u through personal and private email communications and some of you have been aware of where I have been. 

Thank you for your support over the past few weeks.  I'd like you to know ath I'm doing well.  I like to think of the next few days as a celebration of his life as I get to hear more stories about my father.

I'm not sure of an appropriate ending so I'll just finish up now.

Rob Cooper
www.formerfatguy.com