Dianne Dao: Awesome dinner with awesome Cunningham family!

Jennifer Cunningham: It was so wonderful to chill with a good friend! It was nice to laugh about things in our life and share stories of loved ones who are waiting for us in Heaven. Hugs to Dianne. You have been such a great friend all these years.

Today marks 1 month that daddy died. Been a little emotional on all of us today. Just this morning as I was driving to work and realized it was the 26th, I started telling my dad how much I miss him and wish he was here. That moment, daddy’s snoopy song came on the radio. I pulled over and cried cause I know daddy is here with us but is just in a different way. I was telling a friend the other day that it feels like it just happen. It still feels very “raw.”

There are times where it hits me like a ton of bricks and the realization that when I come home, my dad is not going to be in the living room waiting to hear how my day was. Often, I still get “4” settings for dinner and I find myself wanting to text him in the morning to say hello. The other day I sat in my classroom and looked around and thought about how he was never going to walk into my classroom on a Friday afternoon to help with the decorations for each holiday. I find myself looking at photos just so I can see his face.

I know time will help but for now, I feel the same as I did a month ago — like a part of me is missing because my family did so much together and talked so much that it is strange not to have him here.

I am not sure how we are supposed to feel after a month. Everyone keeps asking and I know it is because they love and care for us. I am so blessed and thankful. I just have learned I have to take a moment at a time. Enjoy the moments I can laugh. Take the moments to remember. Take moments to cry. Take the moments to share. The last month has been a mixture of laughs and tears.

I talk to dad all the time and I know he has visited us in ways he can. I find peace in knowing that Daddy believed in God and that my family will join him one day. Words are hard to describe how it feels. If you have lost a parent(s), you are nodding your head about now.

I am working in my classroom and my department head comes in. She hands me this card and said that even though the science department got a plant for us and sent a card… they wanted to also sign another card and make a donation to my family. I was so touched that after I called home to tell my family, I sat there with tears in my eyes. Truly seeing God’s love through my coworkers. In 15 yrs of education, I have never been so deeply touched by people I worked with. This is the second time in two years they have raised money for my family… among all they already have done. I am a blessed woman.

In the mist of all that has happen the last few weeks, I have seen so much of God’s love in people. I have seen kindness in my coworkers, outreach from my church and love from friends. I am a blessed woman.

mom and my brother will be going to my dad’s work tomorrow. Though a friend of ours brought my dad’s toolbox home, there are some personal things that was in dad’s locker. Hard to believe that it will be a month since he went to Heaven this coming Tuesday. Still does not seem real.

The dogs are still adjusting to everything. They are sticking to all of us like glue. This is what they experienced: “Dad was here everyday. Then he was gone (in the hospital). Dad is back and we are excited. Dad is gone and has not come back.” The dogs are worried we are going to be gone too. This morning, when I went to go to work, BB (who had followed me the entire hour around the house) started to whine and it broke my heart. She always has a hard time when I go back to work but this year, it is a lot rougher. I wish I could just take her with me – however, I would literally not get any work done cause I would be chilling with her!!! Praying for the dogs to grief and heal.

Over the last few weeks, I have seen so much love from so many people. People have talked with me, emailed, texted, called or visited me. Some people have checked on me several times. It is amazing that people i have not seen in over 10 years have reached out to me. Some close friends have checked on me daily. Others have not. I am humbled by a simple text asking me how I am doing. I have gotten a “Hugs from me to you” and “Know i am here” means so much to someone who is going through this. In the past, I have sent these little messages to people but it was not until now that I knew it meant so much. For those who have showed me love and compassion, I want to thank you from the tips of my soul.

Prayers needed: A close friend of my dad’s was told he has a type of leukemia. This friend has helped our family out beyond words over the last couple years. My dad had high respect for him as a coworker and friend. Please pray for him. He has Hairy Cell Leukemia. Here is a link about it:

<a href=”http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hairy-cell-leukemia/basics/definition/con-20026432″ target=”_blank”>http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hairy-cell-leukemia/basics/definition/con-20026432</a>

Dad worked for Continental / United Airlines for 27 years, 8 months, 3 days. Out of those 27+ years of his career, Dad was a lead mechanic for at least 15 years. He was very well known at Hobby and many of the folks there really liked him as a person and his work ethics.

He always wanted to get on to day shift as a lead mechanic, but there were several people in front of him as far as seniority. So for many years, dad worked a 4/10 graveyard shift Sunday – Wednesday nights. We would have supper as family by 5ish, Dad would go lay down for about an hour and then he would get up and leave by 7:15pm or so to head to work… that was the type of life style that I grew up with.

The guys/ladies at Hobby have been very supportive in this whole process. They are a very caring group of people. Mom wrote up a thank you note to everyone at Hobby and I delivered it to Dad’s supervisor tonight, August 17, 2014. I was talking to Dad’s supervisor and I looked over to Dad’s computer and felt emptiness. It truly felt weird being there at the hanger knowing that Dad was supposed to be working tonight and he wasn’t.

Dad is no longer physically with us today, but his legacy at Continental / United Airlines will be with us forever.

The family went to church today – first time since the funeral. It was nice to see all the love and support. Yet, it was emotional as we worship without dad being there. We have always worshiped together. When one of us could not go, we worshiped together at home. The last couple years, there has been many times dad was not able to go. Yet, we spent Sunday mornings together, worshiping God. After church, we went by dad’s grave site. We had gotten some artificial flowers for the grave. The flowers are fall colors and I think dad would like them.

Worked in my classroom throughout this week with my mom and brother. Seems very odd without my dad. It is the first time in since I started teaching that my dad was not there to help start getting my classroom ready. Missing him so much. Thank you to My mommy and brother who have taken over 17 hours this week to help get my room ready. We have just a couple more things that need to be done and then it will be photo time.

Today, we got mom’s new couch that we order on the 4th of July weekend. To bring it into the house, we had to open the french doors because the main door was too small. However, due to the house shifting, the one french door was stuck and actually got messed up. So one of our first “fix up the house issues” without my dad came!

We went to Home Depot to ask how we can fix it. The person who helped us was named Dennis! Here we were worried and had tears as we knew dad would know what to do but we could not ask him. Dennis is not a common name. Yet, here we were at Home Depot and the guy in “doors” just happen to be named Dennis. I have no doubt that dad and God talked and made sure “Dennis the Home Depot man” was there for us.

God works in ways we don’t know! Thank you God for giving us a message from dad.

Dad’s cell phone has been deactivated. If you need to get a hold of us, you can call Mom, Jennifer, or I’s cell phone or through Facebook.  If you don’t have any of that information, just reply back to this posting.

So yesterday afternoon, a few tears came to our eyes. A friend of ours who worked with daddy brought his toolbox home from work. After almost 30 years of being in the Hobby hanger, it came home. Still does not seem like it should be here. Waiting for dad to be sitting in the chair.

His boss (who has worked with my dad for almost 30 yrs) told us that there is no one like my dad and though his position will be given to someone, no one will be able to replace my dad’s ethics, friendship and drive to do the best he can.

The last few days, we have been thinking of different phrases that my dad was consistently saying. We have come up with 16 phrases so far that was daddy’s catch phases. For example : “Dang the bad luck” and “And your point is?” is just two of them. As days pass, we keep remembering more and more as a lot of his phrases have just come up in our conversations. The plan is to make a collage of all the phrases with dad’s photo in the middle.