ForeverMissed
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Never mad Dad!

August 4, 2011

          My Dad was never mad.....at me! I truly cannot remember a time when he yelled at me, or made me feel bad about myself. Disappointed in me sometimes yes, but never mad. That's pretty amazing because I have three kids and I cannot say that! I'm sure it helped that we did not live together 24/7, but nonetheless I find it pretty amazing. He was always consistent in his visitation and included me always with my older sisters and extended family. Although he was a divorced man when I was young, he provided much stability and predictability, which I know are key in helping a child to feel loved and grounded, which I did.

         Life is ever changing and changes came in my teen years and remained changed for the rest of his life. But.... he was still providing me with love, stability, and predictability. He could have made choices to abandon ship and sever all ties, but he chose to do the best he could with the choices he made, and I will be eternally grateful to him.

        He always had a smile when he saw me, or his grand kids, and his first great grandson. He was supportive, loving, and never mad!

        We are blessed to have him and we shall cherish him and miss him always.

        

GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER MAKENA

September 29, 2011

It is with such joy that our family is blessed with this angelic child, Makena, daughter of Micah & Rick Morrison.  It is with great sadness that our Dad was not here to meet or hold his second great grand child when she was born on 09/02/2011.  The circle of life continues as it was meant to be!

THE LOVIN CHILD

June 12, 2011
07 The Lovin Child

Above all our Dad's passion was music!  Gloria has already talked about Dad teaching the three of us harmony when we were very young. When I was 13 years old my Dad gave me an acoustic guitar for my birthday.  I did play for many years, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez etc.  Our Dad not only played and sang songs beautifully, he also wrote music.  When our sister Patty was around 14 years old, Dad wrote a song for her entitled "The Lovin Child".  This song haunted me (in a good way) for  many years.  As I matured as a singer and after my daughter was born, I had a dream to record an album.  In those days I was living in Half Moon Bay California.  No shortage of fabulous musicians in the Bay Area.  I found Lee Parvin Studios in Pacifica and the beginning of my album "Spiritual Blues" began.  The one song that I had clealy in my mind to record was my Dad's "The Lovin Child". Dad traveled to the Bay Area in those days and we frequently spent time in San Francisco.  On one visit, I told Dad that I had somewhere to take him.  I surprised him and brought him to the recording studio in Pacifica so he could hear my final rendition of "The Lovin Child".  Dad sat and listened and cried like a baby.  It was a very emotional moment for the both of us. I have downloaded "The Lovin Child" on this site if you are interested in listening to it.  As it has come to pass, our sister Patty, transitioned from this life to the other side on February 1, 2010. I feel as if our Dad understood how fragile she was for her entire life.  We know that our Dad loved all us girls with all his heart our entire lives.  "The Lovin Child" tells a story, "the lovin child is not so wild, she's praying someone please love me.  To me personally this song speaks to the wounded child in all of us. Thank you to our dear sister Patty for being who she was and inspiring Dad to write "The Lovin Child".

Hugs and Kisses always

May 19, 2011

Our Dad always, without fail, hugged us and kissed us hello and hugged and kissed us goodbye.......for all of our lives. He was proud to show this loving and nurturing side of himself to all of us 4 daughters Julie, Patty, Gloria and Sue, and to his Grandchildren Micah, Chandee, Sam and Michael....and great grandchild Aiden.

We daughters and the Grandchildren hold this lovely memory within our hearts and our thoughts every moment of our lives and it is truly a remarkable act of love that our Dad showed us.

Dad teaching us to snow ski.....

May 18, 2011

So our Dad thankfully taught us to snow ski. I remember all of us really enjoying ourselves. So one day we go to ski at Park City on a Sunday. Every sunday we would go to our Dad's parents home, our Grandparents Harry and Lillie Frank's home for a beautiful yummy dinner. This particular day, there is an accident and the traffic is backed up for hours due to an accident of some sort. Our Dad was always coming up with ways in which to go around a situation. So he turns to Gloria in the back seat and says 'Lie down and put these coats over you. I am going to drive on the perimeter of the road and once I get up to the policeman, I want you to act as though you are in pain so I can tell him you have a ski injury and we are headed to the hospital". I do as he told me to do and low and behold, it worked as planned, our Dad was stopped by the policeman up at the front of the backed up cars and he waved my Dad through and down the mountain we went to our Granparents home where a fabulous meal was prepared. A memory that we talk about to this day.

20 years of fun and laughter in Reno, Nevada with daughter Gloria

May 18, 2011

I moved to Reno in 1978. I moved here because I just wanted to get out of SLC, Utah.....it was way to conservative for me. My Dad suggested I go try Reno. He shared with me that his Media Buyer for his advertising agency Gert Bowers ( and husband Ray) had just moved there too, and loved it. I took my Dad's suggestion and I have now been here for 32 years. Living so close to Lake Tahoe and all it's awesome beauty in the summer is the single attraction for me, along with amazing snow skiing in the winter....again, thanks Dad for teaching me how to snow ski.

My Dad came to Reno, NV. 4 times a year, for close to 20 years. It was the greatest time of my life. My Dad would always stay in my home and it was such a delight to have this opportunity to really get to know my Dad. We had a very close Father/Daughter bond that came to fruition after spending all this quality time with him.

My Dad would always take me to lunch and dinner when he came to Reno and we would always include Gert Bowers and he would always say to me "invite whom ever you want to dinner". All my friends loved my Dad....who wouldn't? The funniest man on the planet to entertain us all and the laughs were non-stop. I was always so proud of my Dad for always having open arms to me and my friends.

There Was Always Music In Our LIves

May 18, 2011

Our Dad was a beautiful musician....all of his life. He majored in music at the University of Utah. He played in a band most all of his life....even in the Navy.

When Julie, Patty and Gloria were very young children, our Dad started teaching us how to sing 3 part harmony. We loved it, we loved music and we loved that our Dad was so dedicated to teaching us. The first song we learned to sing in 3 part harmony was "The Silver Lining". Then he taught us how to sing "Yesterday", by the Beatles. We can still remember our parts of the song that our Dad taught each of us to sing.

Our Dad then prepared us to sing on stage at various events. We were very small children of course, but we performed well and these memories are so special to us right now in our lives.

Thank you Dad....for all the love, laughter and music. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Our Dad.....Forever in our lives.

May 18, 2011

The three of us daughter settled in with living with our Dad, and the memories that we have are priceless. He learned how to fly a Beach Craft Bonanza- 5 seater- V-Tail airplane. As children, we had no fear and thought nothing of boarding this tiny plane and off we went to San Diego to see his oldest brother Jules, our Aunt Billie and our cousins Missy, Jimbo and JJ. We had a blast where ever we went with our Dad and what ever he planned for us, we loved.

Before we got to San Diego, he flew us to see Ella Fitzgerald in Las Vegas. This was quite spectacular to us. Here is our beautiful single Dad, and he is taking us to these outstanding concerts. Some Dad's would leave their kids in the hotel room. Not our Dad, he always included us. 

Other fun memories: In Salt Lake City, he took us to see Robert Goulet and at another time to see Phyllis Diller......and the very first movie he took us to when we lived with him was "Blazing Saddles". Too much fun for sure.

One Funny Man...whom we got to call our Dad.

May 15, 2011

Our Fathers life consisted of fun and laughter on a daily basis. He was blessed with this amazing gift of making people laugh to where tears would roll down their face.

I wish I would have journaled all the jokes and events that took place in our lives and all the times that he would call and share his jokes and stories with us on the phone or in person when we would see him. It was a constant shining star to see our Dad so funny and how he made people laugh.......just amazing.

To start off, we would like to share that our Dad has always been there for us 4 daughters; Julie, Patty, Gloria and Sue. Julie, Patty and Gloria are from our father's first marriage to Miriam, and our sister Sue is from his second marriage with Georgia. We never call each other half sisters.......we have too much love between us for their to be any kind of division.

Our Dad became a single father when he was very young....at the age of 28. From that moment, he was always present in our lives. He would come and pick us up every single Sunday of our lives without fail. We were very young children, but he took responsibility as our father and he took care of us.

When we were teenagers, we went to live with our Dad. He welcomed us with open arms. We had the most amazing 5 years of our lives with him during this time. We all had our chores and we all participated in our responsibilities in our new home. Julie had her hands full too. She took on the role of the Mother and yet Patty and Gloria were so rebellious and sneaking out of the house with steady boyfriends and getting into all kinds of trouble. Julie was always looking out for us even in the face of adversity....and she still looks out for us sisters to this very day. A beautiful quality that she inherited from our beloved Father.

Sue didn't live with us at this time in our lives and we didn't get to spend that much time with her then, but we have certainly made up for it in by becoming very close siblings and we are a part of each others lives and we have all shared some amazing times wtih our Dad and we all have cherished memories.

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