...about today...it would have been my late father-in-law's birthday today. I think he would have been 87. He's been gone since 1983, and I still miss him and the conversations we'd get into. He grew up very poor in Milwaukee, second of six kids. He lost his father at 13, and his mother raised her kids by cleaning other people's houses.
He was drafted in WWII, and was one of the infantry soldiers who made it across the beaches in Normandy. He was permanantly disabled by grenade shrapnel that lodged in his brain during the Battle of the Bulge. He was paralyzed for awhile on his left side...through a lot of hard work and willpower, he rehabilitated himself so he could walk with a brace on his leg. He came home on the Queen Mary, and was lucky to be alive, walking and talking after surviving 1940's brain surgery.
He went to Marquette University, where he met my mother in law on their first day of classes; they married after graduation; he worked as a self-employed real estate appraiser and they raised two boys, my Jim being the older son. We lost my mother in law this year, in January. They were remarkable people, and I miss them terribly. It's going to be a wierd holiday season.

The bad thing about holiday season, and especially Thanksgiving, is that it puts memories of those that are gone from our lives in sharper focus. Sue, I'm sure that many of us will be going through the same thing that you are (I know I will). The important thing is to surround yourself with those you love now, and if you get down a little bit, remember that they don't call this board "Moose Friends" for nothing.


mikey

Sue...I love that story about your father-in-law.....feel like I knew him.....
through your eyes and heart....he is lucky to have a daughter-in-law who remembers and honors him so well...
...i'm thinking that something will happen during the holidays, something so much like he was there that you will feel like he's standing right next to you..... and smile....

thanks for sharing...
love, kj

Sue's in-laws sound like really nice people. Your father-in-law sounds like a very interesting man with some intersting stories to tell. I am so thankful I still have my parents. I know how hard the holidays must be for those who've lost loved ones. May God be with them & Sue too...