I took this photo of my daddy in the summer of '93, before we left for the airport. The next time I saw him, April 1994, he lay in a hospital room with a massive stroke and aphasia. He passed away five days after I arrived at his beside.
These 2 photos were taken in December of 1992.
This is Daddy with his great grandmother, mother and grandmother,ca 1925.
My father was very intelligent, and an excellent entrepreneur, evolving his father's farm equipment business into a thriving hardware store and lumber yard over time. He also was a savvy real estate investor and the vice president & director of a regional bank. A forward thinker, Daddy believed in caring for the land, he planted thousands of acres of evergreen trees and we sold Christmas trees each December. He even shipped a 6 foot Scotch Pine tree to me when I first got married and lived in Alabama, where the Christmas trees looked like scrub brush! My father was also an avid fisherman and hunter. Hunting probably being the one point that we had a major difference of opinion on, since I was a vegetarian (since age 14) by choice and he loved his meat! Daddy was also a civic leader, accomplishing more for our town and county than I care to elaborate on at this time. He had his flaws like any other man, but suffice it to say, in my eyes, he was quite wonderful. He died way too early. Rest in peace Daddy.
My father was born May 3rd, 1922. ~ He went to be with the Lord April 21, 1994.
Oh Mein Papa in English & Yiddish by Connie Francis