For my Dad

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love"- Carl Sagan

My sister asked me for a copy of the words I spoke at my Dad's funeral. Please understand that I prepared this statement thinking there would be a lot more people speaking and I didn't really touch anything more than a tiny piece of what there is to say about this man. It's unusual for family members to speak at a funeral like this, but we wanted people who knew him to be the ones to talk. My father was a great man in every sense of the word, and while my words hardly convey this, my step mom and sister covered my gaps pretty well. I'm proud of my family and saddened both by the loss of the man who raised me and the grief that his loss has caused us all.

Here is what I said, as close as I remember:

Dad was a lot of things to a lot of people, he was an easy going, roll with the punches kind of guy and he was one of the few really, honestly, sincerely nice guys. He was loved by many people.

Dad was also a man of thoughts, ideas, and creativity. He was the man who introduced me to Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury. Dad was the embodiment of 1950's science fiction optomism; a guy who was pretty sure that mankind could solve any problem with just a little intelligence and investigation.

Dad had priorities. He cared about Stephen Hawking, Stephen King, and Spongebob but he didn't give two hoots about Lindsay Lohan or royal weddings.

He was there for me in an unmatchable and undemanding way; there for me through weddings (plural) and divorce, through stillbirth and Jasmine's birth, through high school, grad school, and teaching school. He was a joy in good times and a comfort in crisis and he never asked for a single thing in return. Dad understood on some fundamental level that love really can be unconditional.

He lives on in our hearts and lives and in turn in the lives of those we touch, and maybe that's a little bit of the vastness and love Carl Sagan was talking about in that quote.

I'll miss you every day of my life. I love you Dad.