My Father

This weekend, I was listening to music while doing things around the house.  KC and the Sunshine Band's "Please Don't Go" came on.  I started to reminisce.  The first time I can remember hearing that song was in Oceanside, CA when I was a kid.  Our father would take us to a Vietnamese restaurant.  We would order spring rolls and he would play that song.  

As I grew, I lost touch with the song as well as my father.  We would see him intermittently, but we'd also go months without seeing him.  As I hit adulthood and CD's came out, I started to search for the song.  At first, I thought I had discovered it in the song "Babe" by Styx.  I would listen to it and it sounded a little like it.  But something was missing.  

Finally I found the sound.  I would say that I most associate this song with my dad, but there is a song by Sarah McLachlan called Angel.  As I have written or not, my father was an addict.  His life went in a downward spiral that he never really recovered from.  As we grew, we tried to help and encourage him.  His addiction was more powerful than his family. 

In my early 20's, we got the call no one likes to get.  My father had passed away in a hotel in Atlanta.  I wish I could call it unexpected, but he had been in and out of hospitals.  I thought one day it would happen.  At the time, I was in college.  I was taking classes in screenwriting.  I had hoped that I could write a screenplay in honor of my father.  It would be a sad and depressing film.  Then, Leaving Las Vegas came out.  I would say that film is close to the end of his life.  

If you listen to the lyrics of Angel, it talks about leaving this life in the arms of an angel from a dark hotel room. (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sarahmclachlan/angel.html)  It gets me every time I here that song.  

I wish he were still alive to meet my girls.  I think they would have liked him.