[Northendzone]

my dad passed away at thanksgiving - he had been in the hospital for about a month with a knee infection, and it was like he just suddenly lost the will to live and he went from being pretty with when the Bomber were in town to play the Stamps to the next weekend.

He was moved from the hospital tot he hospice on a night where my son had a hockey practice, the next day I went to see my dad at the hospice and I was going to stop and run an errand; however, traffic was heavy on deerfoot and I could not exit where I wanted to, so I went directly to the hospice. When I saw my dad I was breathing in a very laboured fashion, and was non-responsive to me. I chatted with him (one way conversation) for about an hour - told him it was ok if he had to go and eventually I went tot eh washroom and when I came back he had passed away.

I thought the way the day played out was surreal in terms of not being able to exit off of deerfoot and then to have him pass when I stepped out.

I try and take solace in the fact that he likely felt better when he passed and than I hope to see him again someday.

the other day I added an event to our family calendar and as I entered the event, I noted it overlapped my dad's birthday - I had mixed feeling as I deleted his birthday from the calendar.