A Tribute to My Dad

This has been tough, harder than I thought. Thank you for coming to be with us today. As most of you already, know – with Jill and Holly – we won the lottery and got the best parents. All of you know how amazing my mom is and the unbelievable love and care she showed my dad these last few difficult years. This has been an emotional summer. I have teared up, for both happy and sad reasons, more this summer than I did over the last 50 years.

I have had ups and downs. I was happy I could be here the during my dad’s last few weeks but sad he is gone. I am happy he is not suffering any more but sad that disease robbed us of a great person. He was funny, very smart, caring and always fair – even when the disease hampered his abilities, he was fair. I remember during the sale of his house, after one deal fell through, the realtor offered to not take a commission because of the problem – he told him he should get his commission because the problem was not his fault.

He was amazing, he could help us figure out almost anything. All of us could tell you stories about situations where we were told it can’t be done, but dad always found a way. They would say, “this can’t work and there is no other way.” Then they talked to my dad for 5 minutes only to change to, ok – here is how we can get this done.

I was so happy to see the joy my dad had at Samantha and Craig’s wedding. I was even happier when I saw him dance for over an hour with both of my sisters, my daughters, my nieces and my mom. Then when I told him he had danced a lot and asked him if he wanted to keep dancing, he then looked at me with that old spark in his eye’s, stood up straighter and said, “You are not my type.” That was my dad.

Looking at picture of my dad it made it clear to me, the good qualities I have today are because of him. As I said, I won the lottery and I will spend the rest of my life attempting to become the person, husband, father, and son that would make him proud.

The Great Video she made

Be Well’r,

Craig Becker