Happy Birthday, Dad!

It's been a few years, nearly a decade, since you left this earthly life, but I feel you in my life every day and I know you're watching over the rest of the family and especially The Princess and El Fisho Jr. I know it as sure as I knew how loved I was when you were on this earth.

It's always the little things we miss the most. The daily phone calls. The sagely advice, sometimes followed and sometimes not, but you were always right no matter what. I gained so much mileage from your sterling reputation and the way you treated people. I've tried to live up to that standard you set and in my heart I know you're proud of me and our family.

Not a day goes by that your beloved family does not think of you, and I may not be the one who recalls you the most, I certainly seem to recall you many times every day. I quote your pearls of wisdom often, and I think that when I tell stories about you to people who never knew you, they can almost see the effervescent twinkle in your eyes.

There's few men, I've found, that have your character or level of honesty. Honesty is the best policy, Too many men and women that I have held in high esteem, sometimes for decades, fell from grace with some shocking immoral and criminal behavior that beforehand I would have bet real American dollars that it wouldn't have happened.

We'll talk more later, but I know you feel what is in my head and heart already. And like I used to say in our play arguments when I was a little kid, I DO Love you more, Dad.