24 Years

I like to think of heaven as a network of little communities – much like it is here on earth only without the wars, hunger, violence, smog, calories and uncomfortable shoes.  When you pass through the pearly gates God knows just where to direct you. Here they are again. You are now reunited, face to face with people that you love, here in the afterlife – friends and relatives, ancestors, heroes and anyone who had meaning to you in your mortal life.  Sometimes you may need to run over to another community for something, say, if they run out of calorie-free kettle chips at your local ShopHeaven market, and you may have a surprise encounter with someone that you met a few times down here on terra firma.  “Hey! When’d you get here?”  “A couple of years ago.” “How?” “Bus accident.”  “Ooh. Sorry.  You look good, though.” But, the reasons for entry into heaven are usually the big ones.  Heart disease, cancer, stroke.  Old age.  I hate heart disease and cancer.  Especially cancer.

Although I started writing this on November 7th, the 24th anniversary of my father’s death, I got busy with more pressing earthly matters.  So I saved it as a word document with all the red squiggly underlines highlighting my many typos.  But, I wanted to clean it up, wrap it together and hit the publish button as a tribute to my dad – because I still miss him.  So much.  And thinking of him on that day, looking down on us, laughing with his brothers and friends atop a puffy cloud just makes me feel happy.