I want to say a few words about my Mom and Dad and share a few stories. I was blessed beyond belief with my parents. The appreciation was small when I was a dumb kid, but it really started to grow in my teens and into my 20’s. At around 25, I realized how great I had it. Deanna and I had such an amazing childhood, I can’t explain in words. I’m so grateful for my parents!!! It’s a feeling I can’t express, almost like when you have a child. People often say you will experience a love unlike anything you have felt before when you have a child. I never understood that until I had a child and that’s what I feel about my parents and how they raised us. They were both strong in different ways and together they made a near perfect unit. We didn’t have much money growing up, but they never let us feel that. My parents were extremely generous people. Our house was always the house to be at and we had the “cool” parents. I regret not seeing this more clearly until later in life how truly lucky I had it. My Mom and Dad were the best!

My Dad was so in love with my Mom that when she passed, a large part of him passed, as well. Everyone has heard of broken heart syndrome and my Dad was the poster case for that. He was the ying to her yang. They were a great team. When my Mom had cancer, my Dad was right there supporting her every step of the way. I don’t remember my Dad ever being sick growing up and truly believe that if my Mom never passed away, my Dad wouldn’t have had either stroke and would live to beyond 100 years old. My Mom would tell us stories about how my Dad would be at the gym when he was 70 years old doing 20-30 pull ups and big buff guys would come up and just shake his hand because they were so impressed. Deanna and I definitely got his metabolism and athletic gifts! He also taught us both how to excel in sports. I will always cherish the times we would throw the baseball and football around or shoot baskets. Even as he got older and his arm started hurting, he never said no to throwing the ball around. I can’t wait until my kids get older and I can do that with them. We grew up watching and going to a lot of San Francisco Giants games. We spent a lot of time at Candlestick Park watching Will Clark and crew. One memory was when my Dad had to take over the coaching role of my basketball team because the coach got sick. He would let me write the line up and ended up being a great coach for the team. We dominated that year. Because my Dad was so involved in our sports education, I try to volunteer as much as possible with Shayna’s sports teams and eventually Elliot’s teams. That was a great experience having my Dad right by my side in practices and games. He taught me how to do it all.

A big thing that changed the course of our lives is my asthma. By the time I was in 1st grade, I had been in the ICU 6 times, near death. I remember being in the hospital sometimes for weeks at a time with an IV stuck in my arm. I was on nearly every asthma medication there was back then, just to see what worked. In 1st grade, my Respiratory Therapist told my Mom to get this kid out here (Loomis area) or he’s going to die. They didn’t flinch. Within a month, they bought the infamous blue 1987 Ford F-150, sold their house, shut down my Dad’s business, and we headed west towards the ocean for fresh air with no plan other than to find a home to rent. We hopped around in motels for a month or two while finding a place to live. I will never forget all the swimming we did and all the fun we had. It was a fun time for us kids. That is when we settled in Santa Cruz and the rest is history. They gave up a good financial situation to move to a very expensive place to live all for me, without hesitation. If they didn’t do that, who knows where I’d be today, or if I’d be today. Once we moved to Santa Cruz, I was never hospitalized for asthma again.

Growing up, we would go to Las Vegas often. Nearly every night, my parents would come back to the room after gambling and dump silver dollars on the bed and let Deanna and I count it and then give us some. I always thought they were really good at gambling because they won so much. It turns out, they did this whether they won or lost, just so we would get the excitement. My parents would also let me gamble anytime I wanted. They would say, just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it. They wanted me to experience the rush of winning and learn to handle the disappointment of losing. My Dad’s games of choice were poker and blackjack. He taught me blackjack and my first time gambling on my own was in Idaho. I was 18 years old and my parents took us to a Casino. I quickly lost 40 bucks, so I walked around the Casino for a while until I ran into my Dad. Being the generous person he was, he gave me another 40 bucks and told me to make it last. I went back to the table and about an hour later, my parents see me at a blackjack table alone, 4 pit bosses around, and I have a crowd of people watching me. I ended up winning $2,600 at that blackjack table. My dad was real proud of his son that day… Until that night when I couldn’t sleep because of the adrenaline, so I stole their car, drove back 30 minutes to the Casino and lost $600 back. They didn’t yell or scream when they found out the next morning, they simply said, well I hope you learned a lesson and we are glad you didn’t lose it all back. That’s the type of people they were. It’s ok to make a mistake, but you must learn from it!

Every day, I try and emulate how Deanna and I grew up. My parents were extremely fair, trusting, and realistic. I’ve always been a natural salesman and one time I thought it was unfair I had a curfew. I sat my parents down and explained that they are punishing me before I had even done anything wrong. I said, “how about we try no curfew, I’ll tell you when and where I will be and what time I will be home and If I break that trust at anytime, then you can start punishing me with a curfew”. My parents were always a sucker for a good sales pitch and they thought that was a real good argument, so I didn’t have a curfew anymore, while Deanna did. Ha! Them allowing me to do that instilled a huge sense of responsibility in me that I didn’t want to break. I thought I got one over on them, but looking back, it made me act more responsible in every area of my life because I had something to lose. They had a lot of trust and faith in Deanna and I. They let us experience life on our own as it came, but always had our back and were always there for us. They would let us make mistakes knowing there was a lesson to be learned on the other end. They both had a lot of common sense and street smarts. I look back on my life and realize how blessed I was to have both of them. I wouldn’t change a thing!

As I said earlier, my parents loved a good sales pitch, which brings me to a story in Mexico. My parents loved going to Mexico to buy things and experience the culture. My Dad also loved speaking Spanish to the locals. Dad, Mom, Amy and I went to a town in Mexico and a salesman was trying to get us to buy something while we were eating lunch. My mom let him talk and talk more. She told him no a bunch of times and let him walk away a couple times. She told me, I really like that guy, he will be back around and I’m going to buy something from him. He brings out this peacock looking thing that rocks back and forth and is made of reclaimed metal and a big rock. He’s trying to sell us on it as a last resort and she’s laughing, why would I want this piece of trash. The salesman said, this isn’t trash, it’s a Mexican Diamond. We all laughed so hard and ultimately bought it because he did a great job selling it to her, he was persistent, had a good personality, and that she knew she was helping his family out by purchasing it. Even though my parents didn’t have much money, they tried to spread as much around as possible. Very generous people! I’d have to think real hard about anyone who was more generous than them. That Mexican Diamond sits in my 4 Seasons room and Elliot LOVES to mess with it.

I’m saddened that my Mom passed away when Shayna was only 1 and now my Dad is gone when Shayna is 7 and Elliot is 4. They will never get to experience how awesome their grandparents were, but Deanna and I will try and do a good job of telling our stories. My parents would do anything for their grandkids. If they were here today, I have no doubt that they would be splitting time in Illinois and Arizona to be near their grandkids. They would be an integral part of their lives. I feel sorry that Shayna, Elliot, Kevin, and Nathan only got a glimpse of that.

My parents were strong believers in Jesus Christ and are in Heaven together. I have my Mom’s Bible and it’s awesome going through it and seeing it all marked up. The same things I study now, they were studying back then. I could go on forever speaking about how great my parents were, but I’ll leave it at that. I couldn’t be more lucky and thank God everyday for my family growing up and my family now. If you have made it this far in these ramblings, I thank you! My Mom and Dad were very special people!!!

As Jesus said to the thief being crucified next to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise”.