This past weekend we held the memorial celebration for my father.  It was the most wonderful, yet hardest day.  80+ people from around the country came to honor my father Frank.

We had a wonderful time sharing stories from a microphone about my Dad.  People talked for 4 hours.  It was amazing, and sad, and fun.

Dad's Celebration- The intermission break

The themes that seemed to be repeated by everyone were that Frank was:

-A true steward of the earth.  He spent his whole life fighting for water.  He helped found CalTrout and most recently he successfully fought Nestles’ attempt to build a water bottling plant in McCloud. It was a 5 year battle and just last September Nestles backed out.  My Dad was a environmentalist and he went Green way back in the 60′s.  We grew up recycling and littering was not tolerated!

-He was a good listener and always could give sage advise.  Many people shared about the times my Dad took someone aside and helped them through a difficult time.

-He was a hard worker and could fix ANYTHING!  I mean ANYTHING!  Everyone had a story of how my Dad had come over and helped them fix, build or replace something.  A few times a hammer to whatever wasn’t working was all it took, but usually the fixes where very involved.  My Dad loved helping people fix things!

-He had a great sense of humor.  My Dad could bust you up laughing for hours.  He could also imitate just about any noise.  And if his comedic timing didn’t get you, his SMILE did!  My Dad had the best smile I have ever seen.  The world lit up when Dad smiled.

My Dad was many things to many people…and these are just a few.  I always thought my Dad was the most amazing man I had ever known.  I felt it in my gut that this was the truth, but then at times I’d wondered if I thought that just because he was my Dad.  After this weekend, and after what  people shared, I now know for certain that my Dad was truly that GREAT of a human being. 

My Dad, Frank, was the best father, mentor, friend, human being that I could have ever been blessed with. 

May you rest with the Angles Dad.  I love you and I will see you and that big smile again.

My Dad, Frank- the greatest father a daughter could ever have!