Happy Day to our Fathers!

Little did we know that last year would be the last Father's Day that we'd sit around our dining room table with both of our dads in celebration of them. Unfortunately, this year has been a year of some major life changes. Bob's dad is no longer able to live at home and lives permanently in a local nursing home due to his deteriorating battle with alzheimer's/dementia/parkinsons/lyme disease and whatever else he may have. And my dad is still recovering from his colon cancer - doing well but it has definitely taken a toll on him.  

If my memory serves me correctly, our families have always come together on Mother's Day and Father's Day. It sort of became a tradition so that we could all be together. 

Truth be told, I've been dreading this particular day and this particular meal because Bob who normally says the blessing before we eat, had previously informed me that there was no way he could get through the prayer - that I would have to say the blessing.  I prayed and prayed about it beforehand that I could make it through with NO tears!  

As we scurried around placing food on the table I continued to pray silently that I could do this - I HAD to do this! It's a simple thing to do.

Everyone sat down, joined hands and suddenly I was on a roll, feeling pretty confident after a couple of words.  I started so strong, feeling like I had this and then...

I crashed and burned.

And I mean badly. 

Several seconds went by (which felt more like minutes)...

There was dead silence as the lump in my throat grew larger and larger.

And then the stinkin' tears made their appearance.

I tried my hardest to recover but it was the most difficult prayer I've ever tried to utter aloud!  I blubbered through the words not even remembering what I said but hoping I said something reminiscent of thank you to our dads and that we're blessed that we still have our dads in our lives, even if one is in a nursing home.

It's not always about keeping the old traditions but being flexible and starting new ones. Our new tradition is simply a modification of the old one.

We'll come together around our table and then visit Big Bob around his table.  We'll make it work because that's what we do!

This is me and my family (my mom, my dad and my sister, Tammy - NO, she's not my twin) - photo taken in Wellsboro this past Friday, June 14, 2013...

Father's Day 2012 - I'm so glad I took these photos of Bob and his parents last year...

 I feel the need to end with a humorous photo since this post was pretty heavy!

Even though Big Bob was going through major changes last Father's Day, I was able to capture a glimpse of his sense of humor, even if it was just for a fleeting moment...