Dad's Good-Bye

I come from a family, a very traditional family. We’re German. My parents were born here but their parents were born in Germany. My father died a few years ago. He was very myopic in his views about life. He wasn’t emotional. We lost touch with each other for various reasons. One day, one of my brothers got in touch with me and said “It looks like Dad isn’t going to make it much longer.” So I jumped in an airplane and flew to New England, where they were, and when I got there, my Dad was dead. Of course I started having all these thoughts like “I should have given him another shot.” “He was doing the best he could.” All that kind of stuff. At the funeral, I walked down the aisle, I went up to the casket and I just said “Dad, I hope you have a good trip. I hope it’s positive.” Then I went back and sat in a pew. My aunt, my brother and everyone else was sitting in the rows in front of me. There was no-one on either side of me and no one behind me. All of a sudden, I get this sharp nudge on my back. Boom! It was a strong little shove. I looked around in disbelief. At first I thought someone was hiding in the pew behind me, but I looked and no-one was there. I concluded that it was my Dad saying good-bye to me. 

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