A Eulogy for my Father

This was the Eulogy I gave for my father at his funeral.
I wrote it in 5 minutes and it was sparked by a phrase my brother Al used "The world seems a far lonelier place without my dad in it."
You can read his Eulogy after this one.

I want to talk about humor and my fathers sense of it. My brothers spoke of his sense of right and wrong. His ability to tell a story. But my dad was also a humorist.

Our relationship was one of an adored little girl and a cuddly bear of a father.

As an infant and youngster he sang me silly yiddish songs as I lay on his shoulder. They were silly songs that he sang to us all, every niece and nephew, grand and great grand. I would fall asleep on that huge shoulder without a care in the world.

As a child he told me stories about his parents and "Uncle" who was my Bubbys(grandmother) half brother who was an inventor. Trouble was, as my father would say, nothing he invented ever worked but they sure looked wonderful. After one night of all the relatives from the old country laughing at him he threatened to jump out of the window, they'd be sorry.
Now I know, to my dad, as a small tyke, this must have been scarey, but to my dad the story teller it became the punchline in a vaudvillian act.
"So, my Mother said to him, 'Jump', we live on the first floor..." My dad needed the rimshot of a drum set for his stories.

One story he told over and over again, Oh, maybe I was 4 years old, much to my chagrin was about one Thanksgiving we spent in NJ at my cousin Jack and Elys house with their kids. My dads oldest sister (20 years older) was there also. Someone, probably my cousin Jack liked to hear me sing and taught me the tune "I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee" well I couldn't say Alabama and sang Alabamala" So I heard the story over and over and over again. It drove me nuts.

In teenage years our relationship was rocky because I wanted independence but he wanted to keep his little girl safe. I couldn't understand it until I was a lot older.

When I grew up and discovered that ocassionally dad was right, we formed a bond that came in laughter and jokes.

He'd sing, I'd groan.
I would tell a joke, he'd laugh.
He would tell me a story about his live and I sat with rapt attention to his foibles as he grew up with his "gang" of Brooklyn friends.
There is a story about Haskell the Barber and firecrackers but that is for another time and place to tell it.
He told me about WWII and his time in India as an air traffic controller.

I still am not sure how we won the war considering the funny tales he told about his life in the Army Air core. He started though as a private and ended up as a seargent.

He told stories of how he me Mom, and woo'd her, with love and laughter.

He loved my mom from the first and he had great funny stories of the trips they went on over the years.

She was the love of his lofe. He always told me he never wanted any woman but her. EVER. You don't see that too much anymore. My brother John and Ann come close to this.

His love was true, for his wife, his children, grandchildren and the NUMEROUS nieces and nephews, grand and great grand. And he shared his gift of humor and story telling with us all.

My brother Al said "The world seems a far lonelier place without my dad in it."
To me the world has a little less laughter in it.
But, where he is now, free from this earth and his pains, he is telling his stories and his jokes to another set of friends.

The heavens are laughing today.