BIG

Original post: March 31, 2021, two days after Dad passed; edited.

There’s an old Tom Hanks movie called Big. It’s about a young boy who wakes up one morning “big”; adult size yet with the same young goofy boy brain. It’s a funny movie that I have watched a few times times. I thought of this movie because of its title. The word big reminds me of my dad.

While Dad’s wife, my sister, and I sat in that special room on Monday morning waiting to be with him for the last time, we shared our thoughts of Dad with hospice and the chaplain. All I could think of, to best describe Dad, was that he was big. His personality was big. His presence was big. He lived life big. My sister and his wife shared many examples and aspects of his life that reflected just how big Dad was. He made friends everywhere he went. And, for the most part, he kept them.

Dad tried new things all the time. And when he mastered one thing, he’d more on to something else. He taught himself how to play the guitar, banjo, and ukulele.

Then he decided to get a horse. Buck was a quarter horse with an attitude. With some help, he broke Buck and was finally able to race him at horse shows. Dad and Buck ran the barrels, flags, and poles. They became quite a team. They even took us kids on toboggan rides in the winter. 

Dad took big adventures, like living on his sailboat, Dire Straits, on the Atlantic. I wrote about that before but had forgotten that he had even sailed to Belize, along with a couple of trips to Cuba.

Dad travelled to several other countries during his life. There’s a story about a red bandanna that Dad wore in Africa. One of the tribes where he visited love the color red. A member of the tribe came up to Dad and began admiring his bandana. The woman motioned that she wanted to make a trade with Dad. So Dad obliged and took off his bandana and gave it to the woman. The woman, in turn, gave Dad her weapon used for hunting.

Dad had a home in Italy. He would stay for a couple of months at a time and he made several friends there, although some have passed on now too. Here at home, in St. Pete Beach, he’d visit, La Casa Del Pane, an authentic Italian bakery, every morning, except for Mondays when they are closed. He would drink his coffee and eat something deliciously homemade. Dad made jokes and conversation with everyone and anyone who stopped by…and everyone fell in love with him. His Celebration of Life was held there.

As a young girl growing up with Dennis as my father, I respected him. I didn’t want to cross him in the least bit. It wasn’t that I was worried about corporal punishment. It was because I didn’t want to let him down. Of course, as I grew into my teens, I did stupid teen stuff and I sometimes I did cross him. And then I would feel awful. I tried very hard to please him from a very young age.

Dad and I were definitely not two peas-in-a-pod, but rather more like a pair of mismatched socks. Sadly, our time together on this earth was not spent in the best of ways. Regardless, he was the most influential person in my life and he will always be BIG in my heart.

Life is short. Make it big.

♥️

Andi