Missing My Dad

This was the first time I’ve been home since my father passed away on January 12th, 2009. He had just turned 90. I

actually haven’t written anything in my blog about it simply because I’ve just kept it all to myself. While home my mom and I decided on a military service at the national cemetery in Schuyleville, NY where free memorials and plots are given to veterans. As my father was a veteran in WWII he qualified. I spent Monday through Friday Morning sorting through all of his belongings and taking over 1,000 photos of his carvings, his newspaper clippings, photos, his creations around the house (lamps, clocks, etc) with Emily’s help. My mom had burned her hand pretty badly with coffee just before Em and I got home for the week and I feel bad I didn’t give her more attention over the three days but I was sort of on a mission as I didn’t know where any of his life’s belongings or creations would end up in the house or after the memorial service. I simply wanted to document as much of his life as I possibly could to pass on to my daughter and grandchildren down the road. He truly was a remarkable man and I miss him terribly. My mother had left his ashes still in the earn wrapped in a cardboard box in the cellar. This hurt as I felt it should be displayed on a mantle upstairs but I said nothing.

I plan on creating a separate page on this website as a dedication to my father and will begin working on it shortly. I will post audio files of his various life stories that I wisely recorded before he became very ill during the last few months of his life. I will also post a gallery of his carvings as well as newspaper clippings of his life’s adventures. I will also try to recap the timeline of his life, hopefully with the help of relatives. After having just visited Starr in New Orleans a month ago I hope to regain some insight into my father’s side of the family that I know so very little of. I know much of my Wilcox Heritage but very little of my actual name “Ellinger” heritage. I plan to rectify that.

Needless to say it was not a very pleasant visit for my mother because I wasn’t able to spend a great deal of time with her. Hopefully I can make it up to her next summer by sending her money home so that she can come visit me. The flight home and taking a week off of two jobs here costs me about $1200. I’d much rather send her home 300-400$ for a ticket to come visit me instead where it’s pretty much guaranteed that we will have a better time together. Thus, because I’ll soon be creating a page for my father I’ll simply leave one of my favorite photos of him to go with this blog entry. I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU DAD.