Thank you Dad for sharing your gentle heart, your heroism and your deep humanity with me. I have been shaped by your faith, fierce love of family, your feisty sense of humor, your deep friendships, and your example of how to forgive and be forgiven. Thank you for encouraging me and loving me just as I am. Thank you for teaching me to live freely and to let go of what other people think. Thanks for loving my wild hair, my sometimes wild kids and for your playful smile and spirit. It was always easy to be myself with you. Your courage in the face of great pain, personal and physical trials taught me what what true strength is. You lived physically restrained for decades but fully free in God’s amazing grace. You found joy and humor in some of the darkest moments. Your life moved me. I cherish some of your last words to me: “I’m just enjoying it…being alive. Life sure is beautiful, isn’t it?” Yes, Dad, it is, because you chose to see it that way. I spent years wandering and “working” around your office as a young girl, so proud of my dad the eye doctor. And what I treasure now is how you helped me “see” the things that matter most in life. I am eternally grateful. I love you daddy, xox Lisa b.