Papa. Where do I even begin? Today would have been your 73rd birthday. I could sit here and gripe about how I wish we had had more time but I will not. I refuse. It’s your birthday. Birthdays are for cake, ice cream and gifts. And so today, Papa, I will focus on the gift that was you and how very blessed we were to have you. I think about you every day, many times a day. I have a lifetime of memories and then some. Papa, do you remember teaching me how to ride my first two wheeler? No fences had yet been erected behind the Spanish Village. It was just one big space that seemed even bigger as a child. On one particular day, you were holding onto the back of the bike as you had done many times before. At one point, I looked back and, to my amazement, you were no longer holding on. I was riding the bike all by myself! Dad, you were a constant in my life. A constant source of strength and protection. You remain that today. While your physical presence on Earth is now lacking, your spirit lives on…of that I am certain. You’re in a better place now where you suffer no more and where you walk again. Still, we miss you just the same. It sounds cliché, but thank you for the being the best father ever. You were a champion among fathers and, as I told you in your final weeks, you were a champion in life. Happy Birthday, Champ. We love you forever.❤️❤️❤️#HappyBirthday #Papa #weloveyou #wemissyou #ourchampion (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByheAYinH5V/?igshid=bvb5nexgxl0z
