A little dedication to my Dad who may have left us on February 5, 2006 but who is never far from our thoughts and hearts.
He was friends with my grandparents before Mom brought us back from California. It took them a long time to begin dating but he'd been in my life as long as I could remember.
Before they got married, he was always there for us even though he had to support a son from his first marriage he still made sure that we had everything we needed.
Three generations of West men; Bernie, Virgil or "Pap" as I always knew him, and Gary. Later when all of us kids started families Bernie became "Pap" to all the grandkids.
One of my favorite pictures; we would always spend a day snapping green beans and any other veggie we could to can for the winter. He would get up at the crack of dawn and head out to a farm to get all the fresh produce and bring it home for canning. It seems that it always ended up that he and I would be the ones in the kitchen getting the veggies ready and then Mom would start canning them. They were always up until after midnight finishing up. Oh those green beans were soooooo good!!
In Florida a couple of years after we moved down for the warmer climate.
Mom and him at my house at Christmas one year.
This picture still shocks me; I asked him if he wanted to hold his grand daughter while feeding her and he said sure. I didn't think he would but he did hand her back as soon as she messed her diaper and said that was Mom's job to clean up. Always a smart remark that made me laugh.**********************
Some of his favorite lines; take a short walk off a long dock (for when we were driving him nuts) I hid some green jellybeans outside for you; why don't you go look for them (if there wasn't snow at Easter) or I hid some white jellybeans outside (when there was still snow on the ground) The always funny (to me and him at least) Go play in traffic. The classics: Here's a kiss for ya or I think someone stepped on a frog.
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The time Don tore his engine up while studying engine mechanics at the local VoTech school. He yelled and then spent the day with Don putting it all back together. Don't think Don got grounded for that one.
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The time he, mom and some friends went to the Daytona 500 in the infield to watch the race. He came home with a very irritated look on his face and said "where's the beef?!" Apparently Mom had packed everything in the cooler for the race but forgot the hamburgers and hot dogs. They had ketchup and onions on hot dog buns. That was hysterical! He laughed about it when he got home but I don't think he was too happy at the time. He NEVER let her forget about that either. I think it was one of his favorite stories to tell.
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We were moving into the house in Ormond after being in a rental for a few months (after first moving down here) and there was a HUGE palmetto bug in my dresser drawer. I thought nothing of trying to swat at it until it flew at me! I started screaming, Mom ran in to see what the problem was she swatted at it while telling me there was no reason to scream and when it jumped on her she screamed bloody murder. Bernie ran in mumbling something about damn silly woman and took care of the bug. Our hero!!
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The time I was laying outside in the back yard and my husband (at the time) was across the street visiting with him. A HUGE rat snake fell out of the tree, I ran screaming out of the house and across the street and he laughed so hard I thought he was going to wet himself when he found out why I was acting like a moron. They calmly walked over to see just how big that snake really was so they could tease me about it for years to come.
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It's still hard to deal with but if we remember the fun/funny times then we can laugh through our tears.
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