This is my all time favorite picture of the two of us because I think you can really see how much I resembled my Dad. Same eyes, same nose, same smile, same forehead. Well, at least I think so.

This was taken by my brother on Jan 14, 1997, Pop's 64th birthday. It was only seven months after the Father's Day picture and notice how his face looks thinner. We would not find out for another five weeks but even at the moment this shot was taken, the cancer was raging inside of him. I hadn't seen him in about four months and he'd dropped about ten pounds and more than an inch from his waistline. He chalked it up to a changing metabolism and staying active but in fact, he was very very sick. He finally went to a doctor after a persistent cough started a few weeks later. Tests revealed advanced stage four cancer in both lungs, his trachea and aorta. I refused to believe it at first but there was no hope for this great man. He would live only ten weeks after he was diagnosed and died on the worst day of my life. June 4, 1997.