My dad is gone

On May 31, my dad died of a massive heart attack...


I can't say I'm not surprised, but didn't expect it quite yet.



He's been Obese for 30+ years. He was a smoker & alcoholic up until he was 53, when he had a stroke. He quit smoking on that day and it took about 2 years to have a full recovery. He slowly began drinking again.

He retired young in 2002 to Salmon Arm. He became diabetic. Was a functional alcoholic, no exercise and was eating and drinking himself to death.

I've lectured him nicely for the past 10 years about diet and exercise, especially since Quinn came about about. But it always fell on deaf ears. :(


He's been sending cryptic e-mails since last fall suggesting his health and heart weren't up to snuff. I don't think he was totally honest about the situation. According to my Uncle, he was becoming progressively immobile due to 'diabetic legs'. My uncle said they were almost black below the knee.


In the end, at age 66, he had a massive heart attack.


It is my belief that he ate and drank himself to an early grave. My exact first response was to be angry and pissed off. I certainly went through the various stages of grief through out the last month...

I found out on a thursday. I took friday off, sent Quinn to the dayhome and spent the afternoon with my mom. On saturday I left Lair & Quinn to go to Red Deer to meet with Marianne and Jason to discuss what to do next. Auntie Dorothy happened to be in town so that was convenient for us, but probably stressful on her.

I e-mailed work telling them I would be gone for a week.

Went home sunday.

Left for Chase on Monday with Marianne.

It was a long week going through his trailer, planning him memorial and jumping through all the paperwork hoops.

Lair came out thursday night leaving Quinn with mom.

In the end, we had a memorial party for him in Kamloops and probably had 85+ people attend between 1pm - 9pm. I think he would be pleased with what we did.



It was a miserable stressful week....