The Fourth Of July

The Fourth of July has always been a strange holiday for me. It was my Mother and Father's wedding anniversary and my cousin's Birthday. We always used to go to the lake and have a big family gathering to celebrate it all.
When I was 10, that changed in the biggest way. It was 1967 and it was my Mom and Dad's 25th wedding anniversary. We all gotten up, my brothers, and myself all excited to go, but Mom was scrurrying around and rushing my Dad out the door, saying that he didn't feel well, she was taking him to the hospital. We were not going to the lake. I will never forget him walking down the sidewalk to the garage. It was the last time I was to see him alive. He had experienced a heart attack during the night, it turns out, and after he got to the hospital, experienced several massive heart attacks and died on July 6. He was 49. We had gatherings at the lake, but after that year, it was never on the Fourth of July. It just was too full of memories and I guess the family never thought it appropriate.
This year, I am 49. I can't help but thinking that I am now the same age as my Father when he died. I look at the life I have lived, and think about Dad, only reaching the age that I now think is just the begining of my life. If that it was going to end so soon, would he have done anything differently. Life i s really short. One thing I know is that I try to live as though it is my last day, treat people the way I want to be treated, and tell them I love them . there is a favorote quote of mine by Harriet Beecher Stowe and that is: "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."