My father-in-law, Don Geigner, passed away in his sleep Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning. I will forever be grateful to him and his former wife for creating the best person to ever walk into my life, their son - my husband. I'm also happy that I was able to get to know him, prickly personality and all.
Don had many hobbies he enjoyed over the years. He was first and foremost, an engineer. He had his pilot's license for many years and was a ham radio operator for all of his adult life, having participated in many a Field Day. There was talk that he asked his assisted living facility to allow him to put up an antenna on the property (I don't think they said no, but sadly, there is no antenna). My father-in-law was a former broadcast engineer for WTTW television - Channel 11 Chicago. When you come into Chicago via the Eisenhower or Stevenson expressway and you see the Sears Tower (Willis Tower I think it is now), there are two antennas on the top. He referred to the left one as "HIS antenna". And it was. I remember getting pictures in my email from the top of the Sears tower (yes, the roof of the Sears tower, not the observation deck). He could go on and on about his transmitter. But it wasn't all about electronics (just most of it). He could also talk incessantly about fishing in Squirrel Lake (Lac du Flambeau, WI) or his garden (most of his yard). Or the chemical properties of gravy. That was the first story he told me when Chuck introduced us at Punky's in Lombard. I think it was a test. I appear to have passed because he danced at our wedding.
Over the past several days we've be told about another side of him, one is family rarely saw. We were told how much he was loved by the residents and staff of Bickford House. How missed he will be. How Don could be counted on the help out his neighbors, the staff, anyone in need of help. He was proud of his daughter and son and grandchildren - he spoke of them frequently to anyone who would listen. And listen they did. Don was a great teller of stories. His brother can attest to this, so can the rest of his family and anyone else he ever came in contact with.
He is now pain-free and reunited with his special friend Janice. When he finally crossed over in the wee hours of that Tuesday evening - I imagine her saying "Donald, it's about time. Heaven is waiting for you." And that's where our sadness and happiness come clashing together. We are sorry to see him go, but so very happy that he's now at rest. His idea of Heaven may be a little different than Jan's. Heaven for him is a fishing boat with clouds above, on a dark lake, in the North Woods of Wisconsin. I'm sure Jan will understand if he holds her off, just for a few more casts.
Love you dad!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
It starts to become real when other people are involved...
Sorry for the lack of updates. While the adoption front has been quiet, our life just went from crazy to insane in the blink of an eye. Actually, it was more like in the click of a mouse.
Life updates - I've been trolling realtor.com for about 2 years now. Ever since we made the concious decision to take jobs in Urbana. We knew, at some point, we would be living here permantently, but that was the hazy, distant future. But since the past year and 1/2 the only thing in our viewer was apartment, so our consumption of that site went way down. In the meantime, we decided that enough was enough and it was time to move on to something bigger than a dog house. Hubby is frothing at the mouth about his lack of project space and Boo has outgrown her bedroom, our living room and Miss Hollywood just needs 1 or 2 more product to take over our bathroom completely. I don't even have any space to call my own - so we started planning for when our lease is up in July, it was time to rent a house. Renting because we didn't want to rely on selling the home we own in Chenoa. Renting because we are quite frustrated with the housing marketing. Renting because, well, we just assumed that was the way it was going to go.
The problem with living in a college town is the landlords don't like to rent outside of the August to August time from. Your choices are severely limited if you go outside that window. And looking at what was available through most of the management companies here in town - oh boy. One place actually grossed out my daughter. She opened the fridge, when "that's disgusting," and promptly closed it. Do you know how hard it is to disgust a 9 year old? This was becoming an issue that wasn't going to be solved by the normal path. And when the normal path comes less of an option - I turn to craigslist.com! Placed a "family with cat looking for house ad" and waited to see what came up. A few wrong turns, but we ended up with a least 2 possibilities - neither were ideal, but again, we were thinking renting. And both were larger than what we have now. One of the houses we looked at was actually for sale, but the owner was having a hard time selling, so she answered my ad. That got us looking at realtor.com again. And that's when it happened. One evening I heard my husband say "I love this house." I NEVER hear something like that come from Mr. Conservative's mouth. Love something he only saw a picture of on the internet? Really?!? Must have been something special because he continued to talk about this house. We figured we could go see it and ask about renting to own - what did we have to lose. Well, we went from let's see if they'll accept a rent to own offer to OMG HAVE TO BUY IT NOW! We fell in love with the place, so we put an offer in. And wouldn't you know - it got accepted. Then, as our luck sometimes goes - the house we have for sale in Chenoa got an offer and we accepted it. Oh, wow - just what we needed in our lives - MORE PAPERWORK! What the hell was I thinking!!??!! So, now, this summer is going to be focused on packing and moving our ton o' stuff into storage and then moving it out again into (hopefully) our new house.
But, ultimately, this puts us in a good position. Since we knew we were looking to get into a house by the end of this summer - moving into one in June helps us with the DCFS certification. And, since we'll be just moving in - it'll be clean for the inspection!
While all this focus on a new home is putting things in perspective (we're planning for bedrooms and bathrooms for more than the 3 of us), what really hit home was a phone call and a text message from this weekend.
My sister called me to say she had good news. I assumed a number of things but what she told me was surprising. She had gotten the reference paperwork. My friend texted me with a similar statement - she needed some piece and quiet so she can work on the requested novel that is my husband and I. And that's when I realized just how real this all is. Other people were involved. They've been asked for their opinions about us. They are being asked to vouch for us. This, more than the 3rd bedroom we will soon possess, makes the adoption more of a reality.
Life updates - I've been trolling realtor.com for about 2 years now. Ever since we made the concious decision to take jobs in Urbana. We knew, at some point, we would be living here permantently, but that was the hazy, distant future. But since the past year and 1/2 the only thing in our viewer was apartment, so our consumption of that site went way down. In the meantime, we decided that enough was enough and it was time to move on to something bigger than a dog house. Hubby is frothing at the mouth about his lack of project space and Boo has outgrown her bedroom, our living room and Miss Hollywood just needs 1 or 2 more product to take over our bathroom completely. I don't even have any space to call my own - so we started planning for when our lease is up in July, it was time to rent a house. Renting because we didn't want to rely on selling the home we own in Chenoa. Renting because we are quite frustrated with the housing marketing. Renting because, well, we just assumed that was the way it was going to go.
The problem with living in a college town is the landlords don't like to rent outside of the August to August time from. Your choices are severely limited if you go outside that window. And looking at what was available through most of the management companies here in town - oh boy. One place actually grossed out my daughter. She opened the fridge, when "that's disgusting," and promptly closed it. Do you know how hard it is to disgust a 9 year old? This was becoming an issue that wasn't going to be solved by the normal path. And when the normal path comes less of an option - I turn to craigslist.com! Placed a "family with cat looking for house ad" and waited to see what came up. A few wrong turns, but we ended up with a least 2 possibilities - neither were ideal, but again, we were thinking renting. And both were larger than what we have now. One of the houses we looked at was actually for sale, but the owner was having a hard time selling, so she answered my ad. That got us looking at realtor.com again. And that's when it happened. One evening I heard my husband say "I love this house." I NEVER hear something like that come from Mr. Conservative's mouth. Love something he only saw a picture of on the internet? Really?!? Must have been something special because he continued to talk about this house. We figured we could go see it and ask about renting to own - what did we have to lose. Well, we went from let's see if they'll accept a rent to own offer to OMG HAVE TO BUY IT NOW! We fell in love with the place, so we put an offer in. And wouldn't you know - it got accepted. Then, as our luck sometimes goes - the house we have for sale in Chenoa got an offer and we accepted it. Oh, wow - just what we needed in our lives - MORE PAPERWORK! What the hell was I thinking!!??!! So, now, this summer is going to be focused on packing and moving our ton o' stuff into storage and then moving it out again into (hopefully) our new house.
But, ultimately, this puts us in a good position. Since we knew we were looking to get into a house by the end of this summer - moving into one in June helps us with the DCFS certification. And, since we'll be just moving in - it'll be clean for the inspection!
While all this focus on a new home is putting things in perspective (we're planning for bedrooms and bathrooms for more than the 3 of us), what really hit home was a phone call and a text message from this weekend.
My sister called me to say she had good news. I assumed a number of things but what she told me was surprising. She had gotten the reference paperwork. My friend texted me with a similar statement - she needed some piece and quiet so she can work on the requested novel that is my husband and I. And that's when I realized just how real this all is. Other people were involved. They've been asked for their opinions about us. They are being asked to vouch for us. This, more than the 3rd bedroom we will soon possess, makes the adoption more of a reality.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
