Missing My Father

It was 4 years today that my father lost his brave fight with pancreatic cancer. It was weird how recently Patrick Swayze passed away from the same type of cancer at the same age as my father was when he too passed (they were both 57). I miss my father terribly and every day something reminds me of him. Usually it is a song on the radio that brings a smile to my face. You see growing up, my mother was an amazing piano player, my father was a great guitarist and I have always wanted to be a singer. We had jam sessions (all of us playing instruments until the wee hours of the morning) but we also loved seeing live musicians play, so we went to a lot of concerts. We saw the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Dixie Chicks, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Reba McEntire, to name a few of the big stadium tours we saw. So, every time the Stones are on the radio and I hear 'You can't always get what you want' I smile up at my father. These are some of my favorite photos from his last year.

In 2004, I was living in NYC doing the internship at Annie Leibovitz's studio and I flew home for Easter. I wanted to take portraits of my whole family, so we all went down to a beautiful park near our home in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. I took a lot of photos of my family and pets, but this one I set everybody in place and I set my camera on a timer and I ran and got in the photo before the 15 seconds was up. This was our last family portrait and it was taken before we knew my father had cancer. It includes my mom and dad, my sister (Chrisie), my two pets who lived with my family in Alabama (Chopper the Shih tzu and Samson the Great Pyrenees), along with my dog who lived with me in NYC (Oliver the pug).

There is a gorgeous spring and lake at the park. Here is my

father with my 8-month old dog, Oliver, sitting by the water.

My dad with Samson - his 'man dog' that was 4 years old.

My father came to visit me in NYC shortly after he found

out he had cancer. It was a special trip and it was my birthday.

Here we are at our front row seats to a NY Mets game.

I remember my father with such fondness. He always said,

"Boys would come and go but I will always be the one constant

man in your life." Though he's not here, he still is with me.

Love you dad, Your baby girl