DFO: Still Missing Dad 35 Years Later

October 19 is a date that lives in family infamy. 35 years ago today, my father was killed in a vehicle accident that transformed the future of my family. Mom was 51 then. She’s 86 now. She never remarried, saying at times that she wasn’t interested in another man after living with Dad for 32 years. She has been a widow longer than she was married. I’ve lived without Dad in my life longer than I did with him present. Dad was a hard-working dairyman who told me often that he made a living with his muscles while I would have to earn a living with my brains. I wonder what he would have thought of the age of technology? I regret that he never met my two children. He never graduated from the 8th grade. Yet, among his grandchildren are a doctor, a college instructor, an expert for severely disabled, a geologist, a nutritionist, and more. He lives on in his six children who are still alive, get along, and continue to miss him to this day — DFO.

Question: Is there a date that lives in infamy in your family?