We were surprised after our dad’s passing when we learned he was a donor. We assume he went in to renew his driver’s license, was asked if he would like to be a donor and said okay. Our father was not big on words or loud gestures. Maybe he understood what being a donor meant and simply kept it to himself.
Our brother was murdered in 1980. He wanted to be an organ donor, but his body shut down and he was not able to fulfill that wish. Maybe Dad was thinking of that when he signed the donor form. We will never know because we didn’t discuss it beforehand. However, our dad was 90 years old and was able to donate skin tissue.
Our father was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He and our mom married young and were married for 71 years. They had six children and raised us to be good people. Dad was a wonderful provider. We were never rich by any means, but we were rich in love and family. He retired from the copper mine where he worked for 25 years in San Manuel, Arizona and then took on all the honey-do tasks Mom gave him.
He loved plants, flowers and nature in general. Dad loved watching all sports on TV. He would even watch old high school football games he found on a network channel. He never played sports but was a fan of them all, including golf. He didn’t have a favorite team, but he cheered for the Dodgers because they were Mom’s team.
Our father loved his family, especially the younger generation. He would ask my younger nieces, “Who’s the most beautiful girl in the world?” And of course, in his eyes, they were. He was known to the grandkids as Papa, and he loved that title.
We will miss the gentle stories of years gone by. We will miss his silly jokes that only he found hilarious. We will miss his “I love you’s,” and we will miss the great person who was our daddy.
