Feb 9, 2010 Good-bye Daddy!

Dad got everything he wanted.

He spent the last 5 days before he passed seeing many family and friends. There was a constant flood of people coming to see Dad and sharing some great stories with all of us. He was the center of attention and stayed responsive until the very end, smiling and nodding to us.

Towards the end of the day- sometime after 5:30 he began to get agitated so my mom asked that we keep his room more quiet and have just a few of us in his room with him at a time.

Around 6:00 Gregg, Joan and I sat with Dad holding his hands and we did notice his breathing began to become more shallow, so my mom, his sisters (who came from up north) and the other family members also gathered around his bed. We put on his favorite songs on, and sat around him quietly. His breathing got slower and more shallow as the time went on and finally at 7:07 he ceased breathing. It was peaceful and painless. It was like a clock that was running out of batteries and just stopped - no stuggle, no fight.

We all feel very blessed to have been there with Dad to help escort him into heaven. Because he was so loved, there were many people who shared numerous stories about my dad. There have been a lot of tears, but mostly laughter as we all recalled the funny memories we have of my father.

He loved people and we have many "Aunties" and "Uncles" and "cousins" that weren't really blood related to us, but were family just the same.

Thank you for coming out to say good-bye to our father, husband, brother, uncle, grandpa, and friend to many. Also, to those of you who missed out on knowing Big MOE, but have sent your love and support to Joan, Gregg and Mom and I, thank you! Your thoughts and prayers have supported our family through this and we are eternally grateful for the help you have given us, and especially our mom.

We will be meeting with the mortuary tomorrow morning to go over his service and are hoping and praying that we can have the service on SATURDAY. It will be at Rose Hills in Whittier.

I will repost when I know the details, but until then- thank you, gracias and arigato!!!!
Jan