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This past Friday, October 14th, my dad passed away after a nearly 3 year long fight with cancer. Though he'd been fighting the cancer for a long time, it still feels so very sudden and unexpected. A week before he passed, i got a call from my mom at 1 am saying she was coming to get me to see if I could help get my dad up onto the couch, as he'd slid off the couch trying to get up and was too weak to lift himself back onto the couch. Even between me and my mom, we weren't able to lift him, so we had to call 911 to send people to help. First responders came and helped my dad up, but as they were checking him to make sure he was okay, they said it seemed like he might've had some sort of infection, so they recommended we have him taken by ambulance to the emergency room. That night I was up for 27 hours straight. My dad was such a trooper through all of it, despite the pain he'd been in till they could get him off the floor. It seemed fixable - treat the infection and he'd be fine. But he wasn't fine.

The cancer had spread, had pretty much destroyed his liver. He had an infection in his blood. The doctors said maybe days left. He was in the hospital for 5 or 6 days before we moved him to a very nice hospice facility. He was barely there for 2 days before he passed. He was my dad up until the very end, being his silly, gentle, and easy-going self. Never a complaint no matter what was going on. He told me he loved me. He told me to take care of the animals. I wish he could've seen them again before he passed.

I started working on this the day he passed. I always saw him as a big lumbering teddy bear, so I drew that to represent him. He spent most of the last couple of years resting on the living room couch. The cat i drew was his cat who passed back in 2016. They're together again now, I'm sure she's busy grooming him and purring up a storm. I added the butterfly because he seemed to attract them for some reason. We went through a butterfly room at an aquarium and I thought we were never going to get all the butterflies off of him so that he could leave the room. He loved everyone and everything, and was the kindest, gentlest, silliest, most soft spoken person I've ever known. Most of what I am is from him. He's the reason I started drawing, he taught me my love of all animals. The world is a darker place without him in it.

I'll be alright, but it really hurts right now. I'm doing my best to stay strong, for my mom. For him.

Description
This past Friday, October 14th, my dad passed away after a nearly 3 year long fight with cancer. Though he'd been fighting the cancer for a long time, it still feels so very sudden and unexpected. A week before he passed, i got a call from my mom at 1 am saying she was coming to get me to see if I could help get my dad up onto the couch, as he'd slid off the couch trying to get up and was too weak to lift himself back onto the couch. Even between me and my mom, we weren't able to lift him, so we had to call 911 to send people to help. First responders came and helped my dad up, but as they were checking him to make sure he was okay, they said it seemed like he might've had some sort of infection, so they recommended we have him taken by ambulance to the emergency room. That night I was up for 27 hours straight. My dad was such a trooper through all of it, despite the pain he'd been in till they could get him off the floor. It seemed fixable - treat the infection and he'd be fine. But he wasn't fine.

The cancer had spread, had pretty much destroyed his liver. He had an infection in his blood. The doctors said maybe days left. He was in the hospital for 5 or 6 days before we moved him to a very nice hospice facility. He was barely there for 2 days before he passed. He was my dad up until the very end, being his silly, gentle, and easy-going self. Never a complaint no matter what was going on. He told me he loved me. He told me to take care of the animals. I wish he could've seen them again before he passed.

I started working on this the day he passed. I always saw him as a big lumbering teddy bear, so I drew that to represent him. He spent most of the last couple of years resting on the living room couch. The cat i drew was his cat who passed back in 2016. They're together again now, I'm sure she's busy grooming him and purring up a storm. I added the butterfly because he seemed to attract them for some reason. We went through a butterfly room at an aquarium and I thought we were never going to get all the butterflies off of him so that he could leave the room. He loved everyone and everything, and was the kindest, gentlest, silliest, most soft spoken person I've ever known. Most of what I am is from him. He's the reason I started drawing, he taught me my love of all animals. The world is a darker place without him in it.

I'll be alright, but it really hurts right now. I'm doing my best to stay strong, for my mom. For him.