he'd been sick for a while and, while it sucks he's gone, it is a blessing he's not suffering. He was pretty good up until the last two days. I was worried '08 wasn't going to get back in time to see him, but he did got up with a few days to spare. We spent the last 3 days of his life at the house, all the siblings and kids, just partying. True Irish style. We laid him to rest this past Saturday. I walked into the funeral home that morning and saw his casket draped in the American flag and that caught me off guard. He was a dentist in the Air Force and stationed out in St. Louis. He never talked about it, not cause he saw some shiRt, he just didn't think it was anything to talk about. We learned he was awarded a DoD medal of some sort, none of us knew that including my mom. When I saw the flag I turned to my brother and said "If they're folding that up graveside and giving it to mom I'm going to cry my eyes out."

Fast forward a few hours, we're graveside, the flag is already folded. Priest finishes the service and the funeral director takes the flag off the casket and starts walking around my dad and I think to myself "Here it comes. He's going to hand that to mom and I'm gonna lose it." He did not. He walked right up to me "Brendan, on behalf of a grateful nation..." Mom pulled a fast one on me. I was not expecting that at all.

The world lost a good one.