Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Dear Dad,
I never thought I would be writing these words for you anytime soon. At your age of 91 years old, I figured you would be with us at least another 4-5 years on this earth.
Thank you Dad for all the wonderful and heartfelt things you have done for us growing up and throughout our lives.
Thank you for teaching us how to ride a bicycle without training wheels, drive a car, help us through college, providing financial assistance, teach us how to play sports properly, learn how to do gardening- cutting the lawn with a riding mower without driving into the outside wall of the fireplace and trim bushes and shrubs, teaching us how to paint a room properly without covering ourselves with paint in the process.
Dad, thank you for building the basketball hoop and stand that Kevin and I used to play basketball with you and all of our friends.
Dad, thank you for all the times we used to go golfing or to the driving range on Route 34 in Belmar.
Dad, thank you for all the times you took us to Shea Stadium or Yankee Stadium to watch the NY Mets or the NY Yankees play baseball.
Thank you Dad for your kindness, love and compassionate caring you showed all of us throughout our lives.
Dad, thank you very much for falling in love with Mom (or vice versa) and helping to give us life and become a loving family growing up together.
Dad, thank you for our Saturday picnic trips to some park, lake or attraction, where we would proceed to fight off the bees, hornets and wasps trying to eat our lunches on various warm days of the year.
Thank you Dad, for our trips to Deposit, South Worcester, Oneonta and Cooperstown, NY to visit Grandma and Pop-Pop Vroman and visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Thank you Dad for our summer trips many years ago to Long Beach Island, Long Island, Washington D.C. to go to the National Space and Air Museum, Longwood Gardens in Delaware and Philadelphia to go see the Liberty Bell.
Thank you Dad for creating a beautiful train table set-up in Brooklyn, NY and then recreating it in Manalapan. The time you spent creating the train table took much dedication and love.
Mom and I always thought you missed your opportunity to become a train conductor or engineer, the way you loved playing with your train set in the basement. We know it was your man cave for relaxation, reading a book, newspaper or magazine and listening to the radio.
The dedication and time you spent building the train set, using the Model Railroader Magazine and other magazines and books to design the perfect train table was amazing. You created hills and mountains out of paper bags and then painted them various colors, and added trees, shrubs and buildings along the railroad tracks for HO and Lionel trains.
Dad, you learned how to create oil paintings of beautiful nature pictures back in the 1970's that were very lovely to view and admire.
Dad, I learned many things in life from you but the absolute hardest thing for all of us is learning how to live our lives going forward without you.
Dad, you and Mom have always been the best parents ever that any child could ever ask for. We never took fancy family vacations going around the world and we never regretted it.
Thank you Mom and Dad for always loving and caring about our sons Tommy and Patrick and our granddaughter Gianna.
Your kindness and love watching the boys was always deeply appreciated.
Thank you for all the times we had dinner out together for birthdays at the Breakers Restaurant in Spring Lake, the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank, the Colts Neck Inn in Colts Neck or in Princeton, NJ.
Most of all, thank you Mom and Dad for a beautiful life and a wonderful childhood together growing up in Brooklyn, NY and in Manalapan, NJ.
We will try to carry on without you but I sadly feel that our whole family dynamic has been regrettably permanently changed. It will be very hard to eat dinner at home without seeing you Dad at the dining room table.
Dad/Pop-Pop, you will be very sadly missed, but know that you will never be forgotten in all of our lives. You and Mom have left a significant loving impact throughout all of our lives.
Dad/Pop-Pop, you were loved very much throughout all of our lives.
Thank you again Mom and Dad for everything we have in life from the bottom of my loving heart.
Dad, you were the best Father to your children and the best Pop-Pop to your grandchildren.
May God grant my Dad eternal heavenly peace and rest in heaven with all the Angels and Saints for eternity.
Love Always,
Tom
