Growing up with my father always in the hospital, there are a few things I remember and many things I have no memory of what so ever. I don’t feel I had the chance to know him and my younger sister must remember less than I do. I remember some stories, remember people telling and sharing their stories with me. There are just some basic things I will never know! I don’t have any recollection of what type of marriage my parents had! I don’t know what their relationship was like! I don’t even know how my parents met! I don’t remember family dinners. I remember a few Sunday road trips. Pictures that I have found fill in some things but not many. In truth, I have blocked everything out of my mind that I did know. I guess it has made it easier for me to go on to do it this way.
What do I know about my father and what I was told about him have blended over time! I was told he was a very generous man who died when he was just starting his “empire” that would not come to be. He always helped people. If he did not have “it” and someone needed something he would find a way to make it happen. When his niece was diagnosed with what I believe was leukemia in the 60’s he told his sister not to worry she would have whatever she needed. If he sent checks to help, most likely he did not have the money to cover it but always found a way to make it happen. I am told that is the type of man he was. He thought big, out of the box and was ahead of his time. He was an accountant, turned lawyer and then went into the hotel business. I became a hotel brat – children whose parents were in the hotel business. Knowing he was sickly, he did everything for the protection of his family. He was shortchanged in life.
Dying at 42 he was just starting out! I will never know what he could have accomplished, the differences he could have made but I believe from what I have been told it would have been amazing.
