"He had every gift but length of years" is from Ted Kennedy's eulogy for his nephew, John Kennedy. I've always thought the same about my dad, who died thirty years ago today, April 16, 1985.
Not as young and tragically as John Kennedy, or his father JFK, but much too young, just as his children were young adults, long before there were grandchildren to know, or the chance to retire with my mom, or any of those things.
This April has quite a few milestone anniversaries, two of which are an epic overlap: Lincoln shot on April 14, dies on April 15; and the Titanic is hit by an iceberg April 14 and sinks April 15 103 years ago. Then dad on April 16. Which happened to be the Tuesday right after Easter, 1985, and the idea of a little miracle of him getting better was floating around my head.
This photo was taken in Eisenhower Park on Long Island, where we had an annual picnic with family and friends. My mother sang the song "Bicycle Built for Two" to me from my birth; so it was exciting to actually ride on one; and that meant I could be smug about the whole 2001: A Space Odyssey reference of "Daisy, Daisy" when I got to it in college --because I knew the song and had ridden one for years as a kid; and now the next generation is getting their own "Daisy Bell" with Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Cal/Skye, which made me think of this photo in the first place. Another instance of why I love pop culture.
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