My dad was a good man. He loved his kids, he totally loved my mom, his soulmate. He was born in New Bedford, MA in 1939 to my grandmother Alda & Grandpa Jesse. They lived on Rivet St. (When Harry Potter came along, I'd tell my father Harry Potter lived on Privet Dr, and he lived on Rivet St., names are near identical.) Anyway, they all moved to California in the early 1950s. Tragedy struck my father when my Grandpa Jesse died in 1961, when my dad was only 22.
Around that time, my father frequented a bar, & became friends with the bartender. The bartender found out my dad moved there from New England around the time the bartender & his family did. The bartender wanted to introduce my dad to his daughter. They started dating after the bartender introduced the 2 to each other, fell madly in love & got married.
My father went into the police force later on. Working as a policeman early in his career, he was chasing a car & his police car flipped a few times. He was out like a light for a few days, but finally woke up & healed. He then got to be a detective & went on drug raids & busts. He got awards & such for doing a great job at it.
My parents had 2 boys back to back years in the 60s, then my mom had me in 1973. The drs told my parents that I wasn't going to live because of my small mouth, so a priest came & gave me the last rites. My 2 brothers were home, my grandma Magan was watching them. My dad went & told my 2 older brothers that I wasn't goin to live long.
After that, the drs figured out things to keep me alive & I was out of the hospital 6 months after I was born. My sister was born in 1977. My dad finally had a baby girl. My parents were so happy. After 3 boys, they hoped for a girl & got her. Jennifer.
As I was growing, every so often I would be needing a new prosthetic for my right arm...like kids would outgrow shoes, they need a size bigger, with clothes too, etc. My dad worked his butt off so I could have new prosthetics every couple of years, they weren't cheap, compared to clothes & shoes. I remember us going to Downey, CA (and Anaheim after they moved there) to get my arm fitted. My dad & I had a lot of father & son times then. My mom would stay home sometimes, specially after Jennifer was born.
I also had to have a special dentist, not just a regular ol family dentist, so my dad would drive to Huntington Beach with me to get me all fixed up. My mouth was so small and a bit not so normal inside, when it did open enough for a dentist to work in there, I had some fun appointments, not just cleaning but a lot of work had to be done, & those moments were like the earliest moments I can remember. Getting high on nitrous, sometimes not letting the dentist do his job because what he was doin was scary to me at that age. Those appointments felt they took ages. But my dad, again, worked his butt off so I can have close to a normal mouth as possible.
My dad would sometimes come home, from working graveyard shift long ago, with McDonald breakfasts. Not talking about a lil sandwich kind, talking about 4 or 5 styrofoam boxes of pancake breakfasts from McDs. Those were very fun & yummy family mornings.
In 1987, the house we lived in became too much for my parents, so when Paul & Chris went into the Navy, the rest of us moved to Apple Valley, near my grandfather. My mom was happy to be living near him. My dad continued to work in the Covina Police department driving up and down the Cajon Pass, 98 miles each way. Around February of 1988 I ran away from home. I went down the street from my Jr. high school & crossed a long-ass piece of desert land, until I landed next to a road around 7 in the evening. The San Bernadino County police department were looking for me & spotted me walking along the road.
My mom, grandpa & sister were waiting in the police station, they were all confused as to why I ran away. My dad came home from graveyard shift around 4 a.m., turned on my bedroom light on my desk & I remember to this day, his voice..."Hey....wake up I wanna say something." So I was like half asleep, but heard him fine. "What in the hell were you doing yesterday? Do you know your mother was sick over what you did? Do you know we love you very much, and whatever problem you have, we can work it out? I want you to promise me right now you will never ever do what you did yesterday again, o.k.? Promise me." He started getting choked up, "Because I love you, your mother loves you, Jennifer loves you, o.k.? Promise me." So I mumbled I promise. I kept that promise. (BTW, I ran away for a lil tiny thing...got an F on a pre-Algebra test, was afraid to show my parents....& that I hated the high desert.
So....a couple of months later, my dad was working down the hill, my mom was waking up, I was watching tv eating a Swansons frozen egg, sausage & hash brown tv breakfast. The phone rang, picked the phone up & a woman told me Jennifer had been hit by a truck. So tragedy again struck my dad & the rest of the family. Not going to get into details but watching my parents grieve over Jennifer was hard on me. It was the darkest period of my family's life. Watching my mom & dad, every single day, year after year, specially that first year in 1988, was extremely dark. They are both with Jennifer now & that really comforts me because seeing what I saw & heard back then was horrific. Truly sad.
So after a year, my father quit the force to be close to my mom & I, so he took a job at State Farm in Victorville. Then 5 or so years after that, they started their reptile business. We were called Jaws & Claws Trading Company. We had a warehouse in Hesperia, CA and all that was inside were reptiles & bugs from other countries like Madagascar, Vietnam, etc. What my parents did was order them from countries & then when they got the live creatures, they'd ship them out to pet stores across the country. Sometimes we would go down the hill for reptile expos & conventions to let people know about us. David Hasslehoff attended one of them, then Ruth Buzzi, a regular on an old comedy show called Laugh-In, who loves animals, came over and we hugged, then hugged my mom & dad. She's a very nice lady, funny too. The only celebrity I ever hugged.
During that time, I met Kyria online and things became so serious I moved out here. Then after that my parents & oldest brother moved to Idaho where my parents retired. They spent the remainder of their years together taking care of their horses, a donkey, dogs & 2 cats. They were very happy there.
In 2015 my parents were planning a cruise with some friends of theirs, but my mother began to get very sick. After many tests, they discovered she had stage 4 aggressive lung cancer. After my mom died not long after that, my dad tried to live a normal life, he moved near my oldest brother, went out to dinners with them, went places on his own sometimes, but his soul just wasn't there, because his soulmate died. So he started going down hill bit by bit during that time, in his soul, he missed my mom so so much. He died of a broken heart I wanna say.
My father during his life, he had his ups & a few very sad downers, but he kept things moving for his family, whatever we needed, he worked his ass off to provide us with it. He loved his family, loved his country twangy music, Neil Diamond, and his Portuguese food. He had a full life of happy memories & yummy food, his favorite chocolate bar was Special dark chocolate. There used to be a big ol bar in a drawer, in the kitchen, that he ate away on every week, specially when In West Covina. I'll miss him very much as will everyone who knew him.
Around that time, my father frequented a bar, & became friends with the bartender. The bartender found out my dad moved there from New England around the time the bartender & his family did. The bartender wanted to introduce my dad to his daughter. They started dating after the bartender introduced the 2 to each other, fell madly in love & got married.
My father went into the police force later on. Working as a policeman early in his career, he was chasing a car & his police car flipped a few times. He was out like a light for a few days, but finally woke up & healed. He then got to be a detective & went on drug raids & busts. He got awards & such for doing a great job at it.
My parents had 2 boys back to back years in the 60s, then my mom had me in 1973. The drs told my parents that I wasn't going to live because of my small mouth, so a priest came & gave me the last rites. My 2 brothers were home, my grandma Magan was watching them. My dad went & told my 2 older brothers that I wasn't goin to live long.
After that, the drs figured out things to keep me alive & I was out of the hospital 6 months after I was born. My sister was born in 1977. My dad finally had a baby girl. My parents were so happy. After 3 boys, they hoped for a girl & got her. Jennifer.
As I was growing, every so often I would be needing a new prosthetic for my right arm...like kids would outgrow shoes, they need a size bigger, with clothes too, etc. My dad worked his butt off so I could have new prosthetics every couple of years, they weren't cheap, compared to clothes & shoes. I remember us going to Downey, CA (and Anaheim after they moved there) to get my arm fitted. My dad & I had a lot of father & son times then. My mom would stay home sometimes, specially after Jennifer was born.
I also had to have a special dentist, not just a regular ol family dentist, so my dad would drive to Huntington Beach with me to get me all fixed up. My mouth was so small and a bit not so normal inside, when it did open enough for a dentist to work in there, I had some fun appointments, not just cleaning but a lot of work had to be done, & those moments were like the earliest moments I can remember. Getting high on nitrous, sometimes not letting the dentist do his job because what he was doin was scary to me at that age. Those appointments felt they took ages. But my dad, again, worked his butt off so I can have close to a normal mouth as possible.
My dad would sometimes come home, from working graveyard shift long ago, with McDonald breakfasts. Not talking about a lil sandwich kind, talking about 4 or 5 styrofoam boxes of pancake breakfasts from McDs. Those were very fun & yummy family mornings.
In 1987, the house we lived in became too much for my parents, so when Paul & Chris went into the Navy, the rest of us moved to Apple Valley, near my grandfather. My mom was happy to be living near him. My dad continued to work in the Covina Police department driving up and down the Cajon Pass, 98 miles each way. Around February of 1988 I ran away from home. I went down the street from my Jr. high school & crossed a long-ass piece of desert land, until I landed next to a road around 7 in the evening. The San Bernadino County police department were looking for me & spotted me walking along the road.
My mom, grandpa & sister were waiting in the police station, they were all confused as to why I ran away. My dad came home from graveyard shift around 4 a.m., turned on my bedroom light on my desk & I remember to this day, his voice..."Hey....wake up I wanna say something." So I was like half asleep, but heard him fine. "What in the hell were you doing yesterday? Do you know your mother was sick over what you did? Do you know we love you very much, and whatever problem you have, we can work it out? I want you to promise me right now you will never ever do what you did yesterday again, o.k.? Promise me." He started getting choked up, "Because I love you, your mother loves you, Jennifer loves you, o.k.? Promise me." So I mumbled I promise. I kept that promise. (BTW, I ran away for a lil tiny thing...got an F on a pre-Algebra test, was afraid to show my parents....& that I hated the high desert.
So....a couple of months later, my dad was working down the hill, my mom was waking up, I was watching tv eating a Swansons frozen egg, sausage & hash brown tv breakfast. The phone rang, picked the phone up & a woman told me Jennifer had been hit by a truck. So tragedy again struck my dad & the rest of the family. Not going to get into details but watching my parents grieve over Jennifer was hard on me. It was the darkest period of my family's life. Watching my mom & dad, every single day, year after year, specially that first year in 1988, was extremely dark. They are both with Jennifer now & that really comforts me because seeing what I saw & heard back then was horrific. Truly sad.
So after a year, my father quit the force to be close to my mom & I, so he took a job at State Farm in Victorville. Then 5 or so years after that, they started their reptile business. We were called Jaws & Claws Trading Company. We had a warehouse in Hesperia, CA and all that was inside were reptiles & bugs from other countries like Madagascar, Vietnam, etc. What my parents did was order them from countries & then when they got the live creatures, they'd ship them out to pet stores across the country. Sometimes we would go down the hill for reptile expos & conventions to let people know about us. David Hasslehoff attended one of them, then Ruth Buzzi, a regular on an old comedy show called Laugh-In, who loves animals, came over and we hugged, then hugged my mom & dad. She's a very nice lady, funny too. The only celebrity I ever hugged.
During that time, I met Kyria online and things became so serious I moved out here. Then after that my parents & oldest brother moved to Idaho where my parents retired. They spent the remainder of their years together taking care of their horses, a donkey, dogs & 2 cats. They were very happy there.
In 2015 my parents were planning a cruise with some friends of theirs, but my mother began to get very sick. After many tests, they discovered she had stage 4 aggressive lung cancer. After my mom died not long after that, my dad tried to live a normal life, he moved near my oldest brother, went out to dinners with them, went places on his own sometimes, but his soul just wasn't there, because his soulmate died. So he started going down hill bit by bit during that time, in his soul, he missed my mom so so much. He died of a broken heart I wanna say.
My father during his life, he had his ups & a few very sad downers, but he kept things moving for his family, whatever we needed, he worked his ass off to provide us with it. He loved his family, loved his country twangy music, Neil Diamond, and his Portuguese food. He had a full life of happy memories & yummy food, his favorite chocolate bar was Special dark chocolate. There used to be a big ol bar in a drawer, in the kitchen, that he ate away on every week, specially when In West Covina. I'll miss him very much as will everyone who knew him.
My dad was a good man. He loved his kids, he totally loved my mom, his soulmate. He was born in New Bedford, MA in 1939 to my grandmother Alda & Grandpa Jesse. They lived on Rivet St. (When Harry Potter came along, I'd tell my father Harry Potter lived on Privet Dr, and he lived on Rivet St., names are near identical.) Anyway, they all moved to California in the early 1950s. Tragedy struck my father when my Grandpa Jesse died in 1961, when my dad was only 22.
Around that time, my father frequented a bar, & became friends with the bartender. The bartender found out my dad moved there from New England around the time the bartender & his family did. The bartender wanted to introduce my dad to his daughter. They started dating after the bartender introduced the 2 to each other, fell madly in love & got married.
My father went into the police force later on. Working as a policeman early in his career, he was chasing a car & his police car flipped a few times. He was out like a light for a few days, but finally woke up & healed. He then got to be a detective & went on drug raids & busts. He got awards & such for doing a great job at it.
My parents had 2 boys back to back years in the 60s, then my mom had me in 1973. The drs told my parents that I wasn't going to live because of my small mouth, so a priest came & gave me the last rites. My 2 brothers were home, my grandma Magan was watching them. My dad went & told my 2 older brothers that I wasn't goin to live long.
After that, the drs figured out things to keep me alive & I was out of the hospital 6 months after I was born. My sister was born in 1977. My dad finally had a baby girl. My parents were so happy. After 3 boys, they hoped for a girl & got her. Jennifer.
As I was growing, every so often I would be needing a new prosthetic for my right arm...like kids would outgrow shoes, they need a size bigger, with clothes too, etc. My dad worked his butt off so I could have new prosthetics every couple of years, they weren't cheap, compared to clothes & shoes. I remember us going to Downey, CA (and Anaheim after they moved there) to get my arm fitted. My dad & I had a lot of father & son times then. My mom would stay home sometimes, specially after Jennifer was born.
I also had to have a special dentist, not just a regular ol family dentist, so my dad would drive to Huntington Beach with me to get me all fixed up. My mouth was so small and a bit not so normal inside, when it did open enough for a dentist to work in there, I had some fun appointments, not just cleaning but a lot of work had to be done, & those moments were like the earliest moments I can remember. Getting high on nitrous, sometimes not letting the dentist do his job because what he was doin was scary to me at that age. Those appointments felt they took ages. But my dad, again, worked his butt off so I can have close to a normal mouth as possible.
My dad would sometimes come home, from working graveyard shift long ago, with McDonald breakfasts. Not talking about a lil sandwich kind, talking about 4 or 5 styrofoam boxes of pancake breakfasts from McDs. Those were very fun & yummy family mornings.
In 1987, the house we lived in became too much for my parents, so when Paul & Chris went into the Navy, the rest of us moved to Apple Valley, near my grandfather. My mom was happy to be living near him. My dad continued to work in the Covina Police department driving up and down the Cajon Pass, 98 miles each way. Around February of 1988 I ran away from home. I went down the street from my Jr. high school & crossed a long-ass piece of desert land, until I landed next to a road around 7 in the evening. The San Bernadino County police department were looking for me & spotted me walking along the road.
My mom, grandpa & sister were waiting in the police station, they were all confused as to why I ran away. My dad came home from graveyard shift around 4 a.m., turned on my bedroom light on my desk & I remember to this day, his voice..."Hey....wake up I wanna say something." So I was like half asleep, but heard him fine. "What in the hell were you doing yesterday? Do you know your mother was sick over what you did? Do you know we love you very much, and whatever problem you have, we can work it out? I want you to promise me right now you will never ever do what you did yesterday again, o.k.? Promise me." He started getting choked up, "Because I love you, your mother loves you, Jennifer loves you, o.k.? Promise me." So I mumbled I promise. I kept that promise. (BTW, I ran away for a lil tiny thing...got an F on a pre-Algebra test, was afraid to show my parents....& that I hated the high desert.
So....a couple of months later, my dad was working down the hill, my mom was waking up, I was watching tv eating a Swansons frozen egg, sausage & hash brown tv breakfast. The phone rang, picked the phone up & a woman told me Jennifer had been hit by a truck. So tragedy again struck my dad & the rest of the family. Not going to get into details but watching my parents grieve over Jennifer was hard on me. It was the darkest period of my family's life. Watching my mom & dad, every single day, year after year, specially that first year in 1988, was extremely dark. They are both with Jennifer now & that really comforts me because seeing what I saw & heard back then was horrific. Truly sad.
So after a year, my father quit the force to be close to my mom & I, so he took a job at State Farm in Victorville. Then 5 or so years after that, they started their reptile business. We were called Jaws & Claws Trading Company. We had a warehouse in Hesperia, CA and all that was inside were reptiles & bugs from other countries like Madagascar, Vietnam, etc. What my parents did was order them from countries & then when they got the live creatures, they'd ship them out to pet stores across the country. Sometimes we would go down the hill for reptile expos & conventions to let people know about us. David Hasslehoff attended one of them, then Ruth Buzzi, a regular on an old comedy show called Laugh-In, who loves animals, came over and we hugged, then hugged my mom & dad. She's a very nice lady, funny too. The only celebrity I ever hugged.
During that time, I met Kyria online and things became so serious I moved out here. Then after that my parents & oldest brother moved to Idaho where my parents retired. They spent the remainder of their years together taking care of their horses, a donkey, dogs & 2 cats. They were very happy there.
In 2015 my parents were planning a cruise with some friends of theirs, but my mother began to get very sick. After many tests, they discovered she had stage 4 aggressive lung cancer. After my mom died not long after that, my dad tried to live a normal life, he moved near my oldest brother, went out to dinners with them, went places on his own sometimes, but his soul just wasn't there, because his soulmate died. So he started going down hill bit by bit during that time, in his soul, he missed my mom so so much. He died of a broken heart I wanna say.
My father during his life, he had his ups & a few very sad downers, but he kept things moving for his family, whatever we needed, he worked his ass off to provide us with it. He loved his family, loved his country twangy music, Neil Diamond, and his Portuguese food. He had a full life of happy memories & yummy food, his favorite chocolate bar was Special dark chocolate. There used to be a big ol bar in a drawer, in the kitchen, that he ate away on every week, specially when In West Covina. I'll miss him very much as will everyone who knew him.
Around that time, my father frequented a bar, & became friends with the bartender. The bartender found out my dad moved there from New England around the time the bartender & his family did. The bartender wanted to introduce my dad to his daughter. They started dating after the bartender introduced the 2 to each other, fell madly in love & got married.
My father went into the police force later on. Working as a policeman early in his career, he was chasing a car & his police car flipped a few times. He was out like a light for a few days, but finally woke up & healed. He then got to be a detective & went on drug raids & busts. He got awards & such for doing a great job at it.
My parents had 2 boys back to back years in the 60s, then my mom had me in 1973. The drs told my parents that I wasn't going to live because of my small mouth, so a priest came & gave me the last rites. My 2 brothers were home, my grandma Magan was watching them. My dad went & told my 2 older brothers that I wasn't goin to live long.
After that, the drs figured out things to keep me alive & I was out of the hospital 6 months after I was born. My sister was born in 1977. My dad finally had a baby girl. My parents were so happy. After 3 boys, they hoped for a girl & got her. Jennifer.
As I was growing, every so often I would be needing a new prosthetic for my right arm...like kids would outgrow shoes, they need a size bigger, with clothes too, etc. My dad worked his butt off so I could have new prosthetics every couple of years, they weren't cheap, compared to clothes & shoes. I remember us going to Downey, CA (and Anaheim after they moved there) to get my arm fitted. My dad & I had a lot of father & son times then. My mom would stay home sometimes, specially after Jennifer was born.
I also had to have a special dentist, not just a regular ol family dentist, so my dad would drive to Huntington Beach with me to get me all fixed up. My mouth was so small and a bit not so normal inside, when it did open enough for a dentist to work in there, I had some fun appointments, not just cleaning but a lot of work had to be done, & those moments were like the earliest moments I can remember. Getting high on nitrous, sometimes not letting the dentist do his job because what he was doin was scary to me at that age. Those appointments felt they took ages. But my dad, again, worked his butt off so I can have close to a normal mouth as possible.
My dad would sometimes come home, from working graveyard shift long ago, with McDonald breakfasts. Not talking about a lil sandwich kind, talking about 4 or 5 styrofoam boxes of pancake breakfasts from McDs. Those were very fun & yummy family mornings.
In 1987, the house we lived in became too much for my parents, so when Paul & Chris went into the Navy, the rest of us moved to Apple Valley, near my grandfather. My mom was happy to be living near him. My dad continued to work in the Covina Police department driving up and down the Cajon Pass, 98 miles each way. Around February of 1988 I ran away from home. I went down the street from my Jr. high school & crossed a long-ass piece of desert land, until I landed next to a road around 7 in the evening. The San Bernadino County police department were looking for me & spotted me walking along the road.
My mom, grandpa & sister were waiting in the police station, they were all confused as to why I ran away. My dad came home from graveyard shift around 4 a.m., turned on my bedroom light on my desk & I remember to this day, his voice..."Hey....wake up I wanna say something." So I was like half asleep, but heard him fine. "What in the hell were you doing yesterday? Do you know your mother was sick over what you did? Do you know we love you very much, and whatever problem you have, we can work it out? I want you to promise me right now you will never ever do what you did yesterday again, o.k.? Promise me." He started getting choked up, "Because I love you, your mother loves you, Jennifer loves you, o.k.? Promise me." So I mumbled I promise. I kept that promise. (BTW, I ran away for a lil tiny thing...got an F on a pre-Algebra test, was afraid to show my parents....& that I hated the high desert.
So....a couple of months later, my dad was working down the hill, my mom was waking up, I was watching tv eating a Swansons frozen egg, sausage & hash brown tv breakfast. The phone rang, picked the phone up & a woman told me Jennifer had been hit by a truck. So tragedy again struck my dad & the rest of the family. Not going to get into details but watching my parents grieve over Jennifer was hard on me. It was the darkest period of my family's life. Watching my mom & dad, every single day, year after year, specially that first year in 1988, was extremely dark. They are both with Jennifer now & that really comforts me because seeing what I saw & heard back then was horrific. Truly sad.
So after a year, my father quit the force to be close to my mom & I, so he took a job at State Farm in Victorville. Then 5 or so years after that, they started their reptile business. We were called Jaws & Claws Trading Company. We had a warehouse in Hesperia, CA and all that was inside were reptiles & bugs from other countries like Madagascar, Vietnam, etc. What my parents did was order them from countries & then when they got the live creatures, they'd ship them out to pet stores across the country. Sometimes we would go down the hill for reptile expos & conventions to let people know about us. David Hasslehoff attended one of them, then Ruth Buzzi, a regular on an old comedy show called Laugh-In, who loves animals, came over and we hugged, then hugged my mom & dad. She's a very nice lady, funny too. The only celebrity I ever hugged.
During that time, I met Kyria online and things became so serious I moved out here. Then after that my parents & oldest brother moved to Idaho where my parents retired. They spent the remainder of their years together taking care of their horses, a donkey, dogs & 2 cats. They were very happy there.
In 2015 my parents were planning a cruise with some friends of theirs, but my mother began to get very sick. After many tests, they discovered she had stage 4 aggressive lung cancer. After my mom died not long after that, my dad tried to live a normal life, he moved near my oldest brother, went out to dinners with them, went places on his own sometimes, but his soul just wasn't there, because his soulmate died. So he started going down hill bit by bit during that time, in his soul, he missed my mom so so much. He died of a broken heart I wanna say.
My father during his life, he had his ups & a few very sad downers, but he kept things moving for his family, whatever we needed, he worked his ass off to provide us with it. He loved his family, loved his country twangy music, Neil Diamond, and his Portuguese food. He had a full life of happy memories & yummy food, his favorite chocolate bar was Special dark chocolate. There used to be a big ol bar in a drawer, in the kitchen, that he ate away on every week, specially when In West Covina. I'll miss him very much as will everyone who knew him.
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