Flying High

I used to listen to a radio show during my morning commute. At the end of their show every morning, they'd say in unison, "Keep looking up because that's where it all is!"

Yesterday, there was a lot of looking up, but there was also a lot to see a few inches to either side of me. I went to an airshow with my dad and husband. My uncle and aunt and my sister's family also joined us. All day long, I watched military and war planes perform, parachuters, the Navy Blue Angels, and acrobatic aerials. But I spent quite a bit of time watching my dad, too. I watched how he interacted with my husband and talked to him like a son. I watched as he and his brother talked about the planes like they knew everything there was to know and just never quite got their pilots liscenses. I watched my nephew walk face first into a medic's cart and I watched the skin on my aunt and I get fried to a red crisp...

But most all, I just spent the day thinking about how great it was to be there. Earlier this year, dad was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and has undergone half of his chemo so far this summer. He's doing amazingly considering all of the needle pokes and side effects. And if it weren't for his cue ball head and a few less pounds, you wouldn't know he was "sick." But I know, and every time the sentence "My dad has cancer" creeps into my head, my heart sinks. I knew when the Blue Angels did their missing man formation that it could be my dad not too long from now that would by my missing man.

But he was far from missing yesterday - he was there in perfect form for over 6 hours. In that time, I never saw the smile leave his face. It was a day I will not soon forget. I do regret that the day went by without a picture being taken of the two of us. But a picture wouldn't have captured what a great time I had seeing my dad flying high.