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Saturday, September 10, 2005


Remembering Dad
Today would have been my Dad's 59th Birthday. He had to leave us just before Halloween in 1994 after a long horrible fight with the dreaded 'C'.

I remember the day my Dad came home from the clinic and told us about how he had asked if there was a support group he could go to. The Doctor told him that there was no group as no one had survived from his type of cancer. If he survived, he would be the first member.
This picture was taken in 1990, just before we headed off to the airport for me to begin my trip through Europe.

My Dad was the one who introduced me to my love for SUSHI. It was my Mom's birthday and we all went to a sushi restaurant for dinner. I don't think my Mom was as thrilled as my Dad and I were. (I don't remember what my brother thought of it.) My Dad had a large group of friends waiting back at home for a surprise party for my Mom. (FYI: He was introduced to sushi during a business luncheon, I think.)

He was a very mathematical person. He loved working in his shop with wood. He used to try and get me to draw peoples facing by measuring where the nose, eyes, etc should be in comparison to the head shape, etc. I have always just drawn from the heart. I am not one to measure (maybe that is why I have had such a hard time planning a booth to fit 10' x 5'...ha ha). Even with my art, I just take a permanent black felt and start drawing. Whatever the outcome is... that is what was meant to be. I think my lack of love for measuring also hindered me in my animation classes.
Art is not meant to be perfect, at least not in my eyes. (Well... animation needs 'perfection' to be higer on the priority list.)

If he was here today, I would have had no worries about trying to plan a booth display. He would have had some ingenious plan for building one out of wood that would work wonderfully. Mind you we would have had to rent a van to get it there and it would have weighed more than the van itself (ha ha).

When I was a little girl he made me a house for my dolls. It is big enough to use for a bookcase, but he went all out. It even had wallpapered walls and shag carpet on the floors. It is three levels with 2 rooms on each level. Each room is done in a different colour.

When I was a teenager he made me a cassette tape carrying case for all my tapes. He said that I would be able to take my tapes anywhere I wanted to. It is made of dark stained wood and has brass hinges on it. It is as big as a suitcase and I am barely able to lift it, but boy does it look nice (ha ha).

He always seemed to be proud of the fact that I (in his words) "Marched to the beat of my own drum".

My Mom had troubled accepting that I liked to stand out in a crowd by my appearance, etc. She hated it when we would go anywhere and people would 'stare' at me.
One day (a few years into my Dad's illness) when I came home from an outing, I noticed that one of my paintings was hung up in the laundry room (it was a decent sized laundry room). I went into my Dad's workshop and thanked him for hanging up one of my paintings. He told me that it wasn't him and he had nothing to do with it. It was my Mom. From that day forward my Mom and I have been great friends. (FYI: this photo is of me the night of my first SUSHI dinner. I changed into this outfit after dinner and went dancing at 'The ZONE'. HEY...it was the '80s)

He was a wonderful Dad.

keep smiling & creating everyone!
Nicci

Posted by nicci at 9/10/2005 09:47:00 AM