Love Pops
I’m 12 years old, it’s 1am in the morning and I’m headed home from babysitting. On my way home I come across an injured opossum in the street. Once home, I rush into my parents’ room, “we need to help the Opossum!!!” My mother rolls over exacerbated about another animal rescue. But my dad jumps out of bed, “what do you need?” “We need to go save an injured animal.” Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, he did not hesitate to help me. Away we sped down the highway with a crumbled cardboard box, a bloody opossum and sobbing 12-year-old. I have no idea if ultimately the opossum lived, but what I do remember, is that my dad was always there for me and for my siblings. Everyone who met him said he was the kindest man with the biggest heart.
My father also brought us the magical place of Sunset Lodge in Ellsworth Maine.
There is a place…
When love warms a family of children
Where morning’s dew & evenings tears nurture the soul
There is a place…
Where friends share the days and savor the sunsets
Where kindness seeks neither favor nor reward
Where many good people find peace
There is this place…
This Place represents everything my dad was made of. Nothing else mattered, not where he worked, went to school, etc. What made him the dad my family loved was that simply in his heart, he was This Place.
Here’s who misses him: His two daughters, Allison and Jennifer Faltings, his grandkids, Harper Hunt, Lucy Streeby, Jack Streeby, Beau Streeby, Beatrice Streeby, his sister, Barbara Kinsman and his wife, Janet Faltings. Others include Dan Streeby and Warren Kinsman. But most importantly his 15 years old dog, Spike. He will be laid to rest with his parents in Ellsworth, Maine. As This Place will allow him to continue to savor the sunsets with his parents and his son Dave.
Thanks, dad, for letting us know what the best dad and grandpa in the world feels like. And thank you for the Love Pops card you sent me in the mail when I was in college and the “P.S. Don’t tell mom about the money” you slipped inside. Just so you know, I never told her…until now.
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