Thursday, October 8, 2020

A Eulogy To My Late Father

 

    Let’s be real here: Dad was a difficult man to live with.  When he died there were people who would have danced on his grave.  Some of his own children are among them. 

    But I’m not going to stand up here and enumerate the many faults of a man who is no longer around to defend himself. 

    This ceremony is called a “celebration of life”.  It is for us, the living, to find something to celebrate.  We can celebrate ourselves.  We survived.  We’re here.  We aren’t here for Henry Joseph Petrillo, who is now beyond caring.  We are here for each other. 

    It is for us, the living, to remember, and to choose what we remember best.  There were good times.  Let us remember them.  There were bad times.  While we cannot forget them, let their memories grow dim with time. 

    But we should also find something about anyone’s life which can be celebrated.  Whatever you may think of our father, the one thing we can all agree on is that he was an excellent doctor.  As a pain manager he was without equal.  He took the complicated cases that other pain managers had given up on and found solutions for them.  Whatever you may think of him as a person, as a parent, as a business partner, nobody can deny that he was a great doctor.  Let us celebrate that.  Let that be his legacy. 

    Let us, the living, continue on. 


    Comments
    • Thomas Trumpinski My sympathies, Alan. It is the difficult of parents that strike us the hardest when they die, I think.
  • Jay Ashworth Well played, sir.

    Well played.
  • Robert Luis Rabello May you find peace in his passing. May your family find comfort in their time of grief.
  • Sally McLennan Really well done
  • Elissa Malcohn Well said.
  • Susan Lewis Paciga Well said, Alan. I'm sorry. I also lost a very difficult father, and that fact that he was difficult didn't make it any easier or make me miss him any less. Hugs.
  • Roxie Emery Carpenter Well said my friend. He was fortunate to have had a son like you.
  • Adam Athan sounds like what I heard and my fathers funeral-respect Alan Petrillo
  • Gregg Ryan Alan... I am sorry for your loss.

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