A Gift from Dad

[Mikekoz13]

Many of you guys may remember that my Dad passed just before this past Thanksgiving. The months since have been difficult for our Family because Dad was truly the head of our Family.
As the weeks and now months have passed, the loss of Dad has become ever so slightly easier but there are still days when all I do is think about him.  I still long for the simple, gentle pat on the back that I knew meant, "I love you", or to see him in "his chair" when I go to Mom's, or even just the sound of his voice.

Last Wednesday was one of those days where I missed him so much. I heard a song on the radio that morning that reminded me of Dad. The rest of the day was difficult and ran the full range of emotions.... from chuckles thru tears to just a long melancholy.

And then today came...... my wife and I went to pick our kids up from my Mom's this morning. They had spent the night at Mom's. As soon as we walked in the door my son came running and said, "Dad you need to see what I found. I was down in Pop's office  cleaning up last night and I found these".

Sitting on the kitchen table were too small, green speakers, about 4 inches in diameter, and they were connected to a small hand held cassette player. I was looking at this old school tape player when my son said, "You need to hear this" as he pushed the play button on the player.

From that player came the clear crisp voice of my Dad. It was a tape that Dad had made back in 2000 just a week or so before his quadruple by pass surgery. He was simply talking about things that had happened to him in his life.... things that he thought would be good life lessons for my son (who was only three years old at the time).
At the time of the surgery Dad didn't think he was going to make it thru (he was VERY high risk). What Dad left behind was a gift to my son. Dad never told any of us that he had done this. He simply made the tape, left it in the player, and put the whole thing into his desk drawer.

The tape was made long before Dad's alzheimer's had set in and to hear the clear, strong, sound of his voice was a little overwhelming.

I haven't had time to listen to the whole tape yet and it is something I will do alone..... but to have that tape show up this week, after my thoughts were on Dad all week, was just an amazing gift.

[Tyler]

Congrats on your blessing Mike

[Sir Harry]

As a guy whose dad has been deceased for nearly seven years, I can appreciate any kind of reminder of him....What a wonderful story, Mike, thanks for sharing. I know it doesn't get easier, but you have a wonderful family and a lot of good friends here to help on the hard days. Take care, buddy.

[-Doug-]

That's awesome Mike. Get it converted to digital so that you can keep it forever.

[Razor X]

Great story..

[Mike]

I'll admit, this brought a tear to my eye. I was at my grandmothers house not long ago and was going through old letters. In one of those letters to my grandmother when he was dealing with the loss of his mother and staying in the city, he wrote "As soon as I saw our grandson, Michael, I could tell at once that he will go on to be a great man" which made me a mess. I always felt connected to him even though he had a series of strokes a couple years after I was born and couldn't speak by the time I can remember back to then he passed on when I was 5. I always wondered what he would have thought of me, and to find that letter during this time in my life made me lose tears of joy.

 The way you wrote it, I can almost picture it as a movie scene. Thanks for sharing

[Lynchy]

Wow.....

What a treasure for you and your family!

[tomgallagher]

Great story Mike.

[Hingatao]

It can't get any better than that!

[leighmundo40]

What a sweet story. Something so unexpected too

[Adamski1972]

Wow. That's lovely!

[slymyke]

Mike,

That is an awesome gift... and thanks for sharing the moment with us.  I can't imagine what it would do to me to hear my father's voice.  I has been almost 15 years now, and I still have a hard time sometimes.  My son was only 6 months old when my father passed, but I was thankful he got to hold him as a baby.

I like Doug's idea of having it preserved in digital form.