Dear Dad,

Ariel came to SF this weekend, and she, Scott, and I went sailing out on San Francisco Bay in your memory and told stories about you and laughed. We miss you, Dad. 

Scott and I are expecting your first grandchild around the new year. I'm so sad that you won't be here to hold the little one, but I promise your grandbabies will hear all our stories about you. You were definitely one of a kind.

Much love from your daughters :)

Hi everybody. I'm a couple of days late for my dad's birthday, but it's because I was waiting to get this in the mail. 

I found a woman on Etsy who makes memory quilts out of t-shirts. I sent her all of my dad's Tommy Bahama shirts -- they were sort of his thing. We gave him a bunch of them over the years for Christmas, Father's Day, etc, and he wore them all the time, especially when he was getting dressed up :)

When the quilt arrived last night and I opened it up, I couldn't stop crying. It would be meaningful to me no matter what it looked like, but this lovely woman happens to have created a work of art for me in honor of Dad. Somehow seeing these shirts sewn into this quilt makes my memories of him wearing them even more vivid than when they were whole.

I love you and miss you Dad. Happy birthday!!! 

Garry always had a special relationship with Aunt Velma.  In addition to the love, there was also some fun!  He had a sense of humor and she was very naive.  When Garry became sick, Aunt Velma always wanted the details of what was going on.  At one point, Garry tired of giving her the specifics and he decided to have some fun.  When she asked how he was doing, Garry told Aunt Velma that going to the doctor was getting too expensive so he switched to a veterinarian.  Aunt Velma was horrified and then he laughed and she knew he was just having some fun with her!!!  

Everyone loved the smile on his face and the twinkle in his eyes!

We took a family trip to Syndey, Australia, for Christmas and New Year's in 2008. Dad sprung for tickets to the fancy New Year's Eve Gala at the Syndey Opera House, which gave us a prime viewing spot for the fireworks at midnight. Best fireworks any of us had ever seen!