His smile would weaken the worst of all enemies and his calm and soothing demeanor put you at ease. He was a man of few words uncomfortable with small talk. This was evident in the way he could pull out of us the deepest and essential of our thoughts in order to face a situation with strength and conviction. He made us read from dictionaries in our free time. I still have the Encyclopedia where as kids we would look for answers to our own inquisitive questions. Dad always knew the answer but would ask us to look it up anyway, his way of making us self reliant. We would spend hours looking over the world maps and finding new islands or countries we hadn't heard of before... He never forced his life impressions and opinions on us. I remember his response to the many things we did as kids to shock our parents, "are you happy yourself doing that?" And it was never with an underlying notion that we dissappointed him, but the opposite, he was behind us if we were happy. He was an open book and loved to experience new adventures and expose them to us. Oh how we dreaded Sunday road trips, 4 hours travel for an hour excursion... but what I would give to relive those experiences. We learn more about him as time passes... We thought we knew everything we needed to know. Time to take his medicines, last doctor's appointment, birthplace, favorite cocktail, favorite musician, which branch of armed services he served in, countries he visited, when the Golden Gate bridge opened, and how little did we know. We have time now to learn of what made the man, experiences he shared with his friends in high school, how much he paid for movies and popcorn while living in San Francisco, how he Uncle Carl and Aunt Irene grew up, whether he felt as strong a connection to his father's land Finland as we do. All stories we've heard in passing but never fully explored or documented. We have the time now to concentrate on the man.

I am I and you are you, whatever we were to each other that we still are. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was.