My father was a great parent, friend, and grandfather. My mother had passed away March 2002 after a long illness. She wanted to stay home through the end, which Dad did–which was a great challenge but he did it with extraordinary love and care. He missed her terribly. As we now miss him.
Dad was a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot in WW II. He didn’t talk about it much when I was a kid, but late in life he got reconnected with the 359th Fighter Group and went to many of their reunions around the country. Last year he did a “Story of Service,” which is a program by a large group of young people to save the memories of war veterans, especially the vets of past wars that are dying off. His is the story of the “German Mustang.”
At Whitney’s graduation from Cal, May 2006:
Christmas 2006. Dad with Lauren and Whitney, on an outing to see the trumpeter swans near Lodi: 
