My friend, please share with everyone, including the photos. I've cried about ten times today.

Dear brother,

I want to keep you and the family of God that is so dear to me in the loop about what is going on in my life. Forgive me for being so stubborn on cc. God knew that it would take something like this mini-upheaval to tear me away from the youth ministry. At about that same time, I received word from my sister Mary that dad had blood in his urine. So we waited and prayed, honestly not overwhelmed by it at the time. You think the worst but hope for the best. He's 95 and has lived such a blessed life. There were many days with normal urine so you think, ok... dad's going to get well. He's old but well built, takes care of himself and has had God's good fortune health-wise. This is not lost on him. He and mom prayed a lot and that habit has been passed down.

I have shared with many people the story about dad having SARS back about 2003. He needed help to get a fever down so he calls me up wondering what to do. I said, "dad, take a Tylenol." Well dad didn't know what a Tylenol was... he had never taken one before. Dad was about 73 at the time.

Friday I was told that he had a lump near his gall bladder... they did an ultrasound and found it. It started to really hit home because Father's Day was the next day and dad was supposed to fly out next weekend to visit for a couple of weeks. The Special Olympics Provincial Summer Games are next weekend and there would have been a lot of excitement with Josh swimming Friday and Saturday. It would have filled some great memories (and that would have been great for me because my memory is already going, no joke... ok, its a little funny lol). Dad jokes are fitting on Father's Day.

The Monday after next weekend we had five days of fishing and hanging together at a cabin planned with Josh. Now we need a miracle for the doctor to say its ok for him to travel. I might be instead flying out to visit him back home. I am not the least bit mad at God... God has blessed me in more ways than can be counted. He gave me my best bud and its just hard to lose a best bud. I was hoping to give these to him next weekend. I sent my sister the photos instead to lift his spirits a bit for Father's Day tomorrow. I think he still remembers our great day last summer when he caught his big fish. I come away from this experience that is not yet over reminding myself that we need to treat our loved ones like every day is Father's Day, and like they are what they are... the most precious creation of God.

The Goodie Vault Mystery

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