Tag

Tag was my father-in-law. That was his nickname but that’s all he was known as. Many people wouldn’t know who you were talking about if you called him Michael. He had six sisters and three daughters so we became pretty close pretty quickly. He took me in as if I was his own son. My own family loved him as much as I did. He helped me in more ways than I can recall and I turned him on to good beer. He used to come to my house on the one day in the fall when I have all the guys over and hang out with the ‘young guys’. Dina and I hung out with him and her Mom like they were friends rather than parents. We even went on a cruise with them. One year ago this past Saturday (April 5) he died suddenly of a heart attack at 65 years old. It was the third of his life. When my mother-in-law called me that morning to tell me what happened I honestly didn’t expect the follow-up call a few hours later that he didn’t make it. It was surreal. I was sitting in the waiting room while they finished up Dina’s morning routines. She didn’t know. I had that lovely chore. I can still see the pain on her face as if it were yesterday and it still breaks my heart.
He was a Harley rider. He could be gruff. Even kind of a jerk at times. He didn’t show a lot of emotion over things and it wasn’t easy to be close to him in that regard. And he certainly marched to the beat of his own drum. But he truly was a great man that would do whatever he could to help his loved ones and friends. And he loved it when he became Papa Tag to Hannah four years ago. He was Dina’s father and he had just died. She didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to him (none of us did for that matter). But we would all have our chance. Dina wouldn’t. Six days later she died. I truly believe the emotional stress of this had something to do with it. We had asked about her being allowed to go to the services. While they debated it they decided in the end they didn’t want to risk it. She was doing very well and in hindsight only a few days from being moved to rehab. While it wasn’t the decision we wanted it was kind of what we expected. We understood it and respected it. We didn’t want to chance anything either. Within days she had a headache that didn’t seem to have any cause and wouldn’t go away. The headache made sense under the circumstances but in hindsight I believe that was the start of the hemorrhage that took her life, especially since they weren’t able to determine the cause of the hemorrhage.
Anyways, this past year has been a crazy one for me, my in-laws, family and friends and part of me always feels like that in the midst of Dina dying at such a young age, and mostly unexpected, that Tag is sometimes forgotten. I know he’s not but it just feels that way sometimes. So today I just want to let him know that he’s not forgotten. I miss him and love him very much as does everyone else. Ride on, Tag.