Wednesday, October 15, 2008

This One's for You, Daddy

I want to thank everyone for your support and patience over the past couple of weeks while my sister and I handled all the obligatory arrangements surrounding my father's death. And now, life goes on and I'm back in the office.

I walked around the City Hall courtyard yesterday for some solace in the middle of the day and took this photo of one of the rose gardens. We never had rose gardens in the courtyard, surprisingly, until after the building reopened in summer 2007 after the three-year retrofit and restoration project.


This has always been one of my favorite photos of my father. It was 1954 and he was the executive officer on the USS Siboney. Most of the other photos I have of him in the Navy are when he was in dress uniform, but here he's in fatigues, taking a well-deserved break on this escort aircraft carrier.


I found this photo after he passed away. My mother had written "The day before you left" on the back. She must have sent it to him with a letter when he was out to sea.

And here they are later in life, about 10 years ago. After his career as a naval officer, my dad became a teacher and vice principal, and then he and my mother, also a teacher, retired and did a lot of volunteer work together.


Thanks for letting me share. Tomorrow I'll get back to the business of posting PIO- and city-related info on this blog.

5 comments:

Cafe Observer said...

Ann, good to have you back!

We wish you & your family well in this period of transition. Unfortunately we all have 2 go through this.

FYI, there was an interesting LATimes article on the bottom of the front page today about a study on rodents. And the insight it gives re bonding & separation between mates. And related depression/grief. It may be relevant at this time.

Petrea Burchard said...

Thank you for sharing all this.

Anonymous said...

Now I understand how it was that you grew up in San Diego. This is a great tribute to your dad. I can see the physical resemblance between you and your kin. I put a happy birthday tribute to my mom on my blog. She loved it! The pattern on your dad's shirt is fantastic!!!!!
I like the choice of pale pink roses in the courtyard.

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

In the old picture I like his mandals (man sandals)

Anonymous said...

What a nice tribute - he sounds like a great guy.