Death in the family

My father in law died this morning.

He was 101.

Up until age 99 he had it his way. Then he fell, broke his hip and despite gallant attempts to regain his freedom, he ended up in home for the aged and gradually lost his vast and well used independence. No one’s fault. He was just very old.

But the term, he lived a full life is more than appropriate to the way this man lived.

I have never wanted to live to 100 much less 99 but if I could have his health and mobility prior to his accident, I wouldn’t it mind so much.

He always said Tutto va bene!

All is well.

He was controversial but then the great ones always are. All I know is that when I joined the family in 1980 he welcomed me right away. Heck, he was a life long democrat and no one in the family could figure what the hell I was.

When Clinton raised taxes during his first term we had a conversation about it. He said “Good government costs.” Of course he was being slightly humorous. Later when the democrats lost control of both houses in congress he said, “Well, we may have gone too far.” We both laughed at that one. Once he called me at work and my admin answered. He said The Governor was calling.  She stumbled into my office and blurted out that The Governor was on the phone. When I picked up and told him her reaction he laughed. “Good. I wanted to shake things up.” In 1991 we were out on the beach at Vashon knocking back a beer and were discussing the 1992 elections. I asked him what he thought of Mario Cuomo’s chances. Cuomo was the favorite at the time. “Oh,” he said, “I talked to him. He’s not running.” I was surprised but asked him who would be a good candidate. “You’ve never heard of him,” he chuckled,  “but we have a guy from Arkansas we think is pretty good.”

My father in law played with the big boys. That’s him on the right next to JFK.

Here he is with Elvis at the Seattle World Fair.

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