March 19, 1976

This was one of the saddest days of my life. I was 17yrs old and about to graduate from high school. I was on my way to Georgia Tech in the fall - the only college I ever wanted to attend. But my life changed on this date because my dad died of a heart attack. He was 49. We were just getting to that stage where we could do some guy talking together. He had sort of accepted that my hair was going to be longer than he wanted (sort of ironic now isn't it). We had always had a pretty good relationship but I'm sure it was about to get a lot better.

I'm now 50 years old - older than my dad was when he died. I still miss him. The thing I probably miss the most is that he never had a chance to meet Lin or Sara or Meg or KT. He would have loved them more than they can imagine.

But life goes on. We miss the ones who are gone and try our best to make them proud. We don't always succeed - but we try.