Loss

Daily Rant lost her father last week. He's Dead, Jim has posted A beautiful post on losing a loved one.

I lost my father July 14, 2005. He had many health problems, including cancer, that we didn't know about.

He didn't tell us.

It was his effort to protect his children. But I wish I had known.

It is the custom here in the South that when a funeral procession approaches, you pull over and stop. Trains don't. My father was fascinated with trains. Many a time as a child, my dad would drive us down to the parking lot of a local church to watch the Sunset Limited passenger train go by.

Riding in the limo during the funeral procession, I heard that lonesome, yet comforting, and all too familiar sound of a train whistle. We had to stop and let the train pass. I couldn't help but smile.

Dad would have loved it.