RIP Harley

The cancer finally won, and my Mom and brother finally had to put my Dad's dog, Harley, to sleep yesterday. Harley was a beautiful black lab, with one of the sweetest dispositions of any dog I've ever known. She was an old soul from the beginning; I remember watching her sleep--seemingly constantly--when she was just a couple of years old and thinking that if you didn't know better you'd think she was a senior citizen. With her lazy, easygoing personality, she always, always had a wag of her tail to greet you, and would quickly roll over to beg for a belly rub.

Harley loved everyone, but she definitely was my Dad's dog and had a special bond with him. Wherever they are, I hope they are together.

Did My Package Come?

In recognition of the wildly popular National Blog Something From Draft Week 2009, which you probably know as NaBloSoFroDraWe, I decided to finally write this post. It's one of several in my drafts folder about my Dad, and I need to find the time to finish more of them. He has been on my mind a lot lately. First it was because of the one year anniversary of his death, but then it was the trips I took these last couple of weeks. So many of the summer vacations my 10-year old has had included my Dad, which I'm sure is why she brought him up to me multiple times a day while on vacation. (The fact that we saw a ridiculous amount of Coopers on the island was a factor as well. Seriously, they were everywhere. Every color and style.)

You know how some memories are impossible to date? This is one of those. Whenever my Dad came home from work, most days he would ask my Mom "Did my package come?" and she'd always casually say "No." When I was old enough to care, I asked what package he was talking about. Turns out there was no package. Ever.

When my Mom and Dad were first married, money was tight. I guess it was always kind of tight, but that's probably more because of my Mom's thrifty, saving nature. Those qualities were actual very critical, as they were needed to balance out my Dad's nature--to spend it as soon as he had it. So apparently, early in their marriage my Dad's way of dealing with this conflict was to create something that was designed solely to drive my Mom crazy. They were married in January and I was born in December (makes you think for a second, right? Dad loved that too, but that's another post...) so I imagine my Mom was really freaking out about money.

One day my he came home from work and asked her simply "Did my package come?" and she instantly panicked: "Package? What package? What did you order? We can't afford anything! What package is coming?" He just chuckled and said it was nothing to worry about and just let it go. She got really upset, but he remained calm. After doing this every day for a week, I'm sure my Mom was probably about to explode, thinking all week that he spent all this money that she knew nothing about and was sure they couldn't afford.

He finally confessed to her that there was no package; he had just been teasing her. I picture my Mom being absolutely furious at him for a solid 5 minutes, and then not being able to help smiling and just shaking her head. That was a reaction my Dad always got easily--he could always elicit a smile from you shortly after whatever frustration he first caused you. There were always lots of both around him.

Even though the joke was up after a week, the routine of him asking her when he got home from work "Did my package come?"continued for almost as long as I can remember, probably as long as he went to work every day. And after she answered "no" my Mom always just smiled and shook her head.

Cooper Slap

It's been just over 6 months since my father passed away, and I'm just now starting to feel like I'm ready to write about him. The thought of NOT writing stuff about him has been stressful, because part of me thinks I need to somehow record all of the memories I have of him before they start to fade. Well, I'm happy to say that so far they haven't faded at all. They make me smile, cry, and laugh every single day. When someone isn't around any longer it's amazing how many things remind you of them.

There are just SO many things that make me think of my Dad, I could write a post every day this year about all of them and not be done. But one has been in the front of my mind the last few days, so I thought I'd start with it: the Cooper slap.

A couple of years ago I flew back home to Pittsburgh for a family funeral. My Dad picked me up at the airport. After I finally found him (silly me for not realizing that since a beer is cheaper than a cup of coffee in the airport I should have gone straight to the bar, even if it was 10:30am!) we headed out to the parking garage. As we were pulling out, he suddenly slowed the car down and gave me a light slap on the arm and said "Cooper Slap". He then pointed to the Mini Cooper we were passing, and said that he was updating the old game of punch buggy as Cooper Slap, and was trying to get it to catch on. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head, the standard reaction to many of the strange things that came out of his mouth on a regular basis.

Two days later he and my Mom were driving me back to the airport, this time at night. He was completely caught off guard when I leaned forward from the back seat to slap him on the arm and call out "Cooper slap" as a Mini Cooper passed us. Caught off guard, but then he was just beaming. He leaned over to my Mom in the front seat and said "See, it's catching on!"

Whenever I saw him after this, I was always looking for a Cooper, just like I used to look for punch buggies as a kid. I think that was one of my favorite things about my Dad--the way he could always help you find that silly, child-like happiness. That was one of the biggest traits of his personality (and believe me, his personality was BIG!) and definitely my favorite.

If you took the time to read this, I wonder if the next time you see a Mini Cooper the "Cooper Slap" will pop into your head. If it does, please take a minute to slap the nearest person. It just might catch on after all.