I Should Have Honored Him While He Was Alive

Dyanna Dess

I should have honored him while he was alive

I was 15 years old and thought that I could handle my life alone. I went to private schoolall my life, which I am thankful for. I had my mother and father and not a great big family but my two brothers were all that mattered. We were a great family. We had our problems like everyone else.

My father, David Sr., was a man that I adored. I was his little princess in the middle of two boys. My father was a man that had to face many trials and tribulations. He handled having his 29 year old bother killed in a car crash and then two of his friends killed in other accidents. He was a normal father. He loved his children above alland he did everything in his power to make our lives "perfect". "Perfect" to me would have been to have my father not working 80 hour weeks. We had financial problems and he was making our lives better.

One night I went to see a basketball game with a friend and her family. As I came home I passed two cars coming out of our driveway. I went inside and asked my 12 year old brother who it was. He said my dad's boss and his wife came over to take my mom to the hospital to help them. These people were a big part of our lives so we thought nothing of it. My father usually worked until 10:00 at night so we thought that he was there. I was in my room around 9:30 or so when I was studying for exams. I went in to my dining room and saw my mother clenching my younger brother and crying. I knew at that moment that the fear that I always wished would never come over me, did.

I knew that my father was dead before she even turned around to look at me. I knew that if it was my older brother that my father would be there. But if I was my father that my brother would still be working and not know. Everything stopped from then on. To think of my life without him in it. A man that pulled our family out of financial disaster and loved everyone and got along with everyone.

What occured was that my father was on his way home early to spend time with us and at 5:42 a tractor trailer made a sudden stop and my father flew into the back of him. He couldn't be flown to Cooper Hospital because he went into cardiac arrest. After everything and two years past, I want to know why I didn't honor him for the fifteen years that I had the opportunity. Things will never be the same for my family and I. We have accepted our loss and tried to move on.

Dyanna Dess



You can send email to Dyanna Dess at [email protected]

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Anniversary date - 1-14-97
Date of post - 6-6-00

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