Remembering my father, Andrew De La O, today on the 38th anniversary of his death
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My father and I at Kern River 1979
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It was a lifetime ago. Life is like a river, it just keeps on flowing, moments in time come, and then like the water in a river, they are gone forever, never to be touched again. This is why we remember. This is also why we mourn.
My father was 57 when he passed on May 7, 1981. Tomorrow I will be 65. I have out lived him by eight years. Sometimes that plays with my head. I have striven my entire life to be the kind of man he was. Still, the older I get the more I can appreciate his ways. He was old school, a depression era man. His ways were “Waste not, want not”, or “You take care of your own business”! I was fortunate, no, I was blessed, to be raised by a good decent man. He was not perfect, any more than I am, but he was a good decent man, a good husband, a good father and grandfather. He loved his country and he was a hard working man. His values and his needs were simple.
We never did talk about God, or at least not until shortly before his death. The only time I can remember is a day when I asked, “Dad, do you believe in God?” “Yes” was his clear and succinct answer. He didn’t follow up with an explanation. The only other time he mentioned anything close to God was when he was telling me about how he and my uncles sometimes had to cross a cemetery, when they were kids, in the dark on their way back from town. He crossed his thumb over his index finger to form a cross.He came to Christ in the last year of his life and for that I am eternally grateful.
I sometimes wonder what he would think of the world today. A lot has changed, in the world and in the family, some good, some not so good. Asi es la Vida! (That’s life)
Things are different now. He has my mother with him now. That gives me some comfort.
I will miss that man forever but I am grateful.
