Grieving and Healing

I lost my dad 2 1/2 years ago.

The pain is still as fresh as the day it happened.

My dad was an avid fisherman. He would have lived outside in the wildness if he could. Never did we expect that to be how we lost him.

I spoke to my dad every night. He lived in Wisconsin and my son and I lived in Virginia. I called in a Sunday night to catch up with him and have him see my son. My step-mom answered the phone and after catching up for a bit, she said, “your dad hasn’t come home!”

He had gone fishing for the day and it was 7:30 pm and he was not home yet. That’s so unlike my dad. She called the local sheriff and they went to where his vehicle was last located near the river because he had a tracker on.

They found his vehicle and it was locked. But they didn’t find my dad. Because it was dark and dangerous, they decided to continue the search early in the morning. The next morning, they searched with several local police departments, the local reservation, heat sensing helicopters, and cadaver dogs. They found him that late morning in the river. Passed away.

It was labeled a drowning but the water was low. Below his knee. So most likely it was a medical emergency of some kind. We do not have answers.

This will forever be one of the hardest journeys I have been apart of. Grieving is different every day. And healing is also different every day.

But it will happen. I will heal. #safespace #lemon8challenge