Dewitt Keen

It seems important to acknowledge that my father died yesterday. I had anticipated it to some degree, because his health had been failing for some time. But the finality of it is still a shock.
It is hard to describe how I am feeling about it. I am not even sure I know how I feel about it.
This I do know:
*He taught me something about love, though he may not have known it. He spent our entire lives loving my brothers, my sister and me. He did not get very much back from us, to be sure. The reasons for that are many and varied. He loved us without asking for anything in return.
*There is a church in Connecticut that will no longer have flowers on its altar dedicated to us on each of our birthdays.
*When I spoke to him on Christmas Day, I could not bring myself to tell him I love him. The words could not come out of my mouth, even though a part of me knew this would be the last time we spoke.
*I am relieved, for his sake, that he is no longer suffering.
*I can hear his voice now, quietly speaking in his courtly way, with a slightly Southern accent. He had an eloquent way about him, always.
*Even though we did not have a close relationship here on earth, he is shining down on me from heaven now.
Dewitt Keen: a true gentleman, a good man with a lot of love in his heart..........