"I'll always be in your heart."

Whenever we had to be apart, those tender words would be spoken by my dad, as he would delicately point to my heart. My first school trip out of state. Summer camp. College that took me far away from home. "I'll always be in your heart," he would say, his gentle eyes smiling proudly, lovingly at me; giving me the courage for whatever endeavor I needed to accomplish.

That last Thanksgiving, my sister and her family came up from Texas as usual, to begin the venture of creating our individual concoctions which would ultimately be our family feast.

I had arranged something different for that year. It was so unusual all of us to be together - my sister with her husband, me with mine and our daughter, and mom and dad - that I arranged for our portrait to be taken at a local mall photographer. Stepping off the plane, my sister pulled me aside, aghast at how pale dad was, almost yellowish in appearance. I guess I was around him so often, I hadn't noticed the progression of what was to be the beginning of the end.

We went right to the photographer's place, and even though that year ended in tragedy, this was one moment we could all look back on and honestly laugh. My sister's husband has MS, which affects him worse some times than other times. This particular trip was a tough one for him. He couldn't walk and needed a wheelchair, which my sister took care of, navigating it through stacks of clothes to the back of the store where the photographer was housed. Dad leaned heavily on a cane, carefully taking one step at a time. My mom, oblivious to them both, teetered on heals which she had no business wearing at her age, and I was busy corralling our eighteen month old.

The photographer had a tough time fitting us all in the tiny room, not to mention capturing the attention of a toddler while making two men who could barely walk stand still for a longish period of time. Now, one must picture this. Dad was in the front next to me, with mom behind him, grabbing under his chin and telling him repeatedly to close his mouth and hold his head up, a scowl on her face. Me trying desperately to keep the baby from crying and my brother in law leaning on my sister and complaining (rather loudly) that his legs were not going to last long. My sister, telling mom to leave dad alone, my husband rolling his eyes and finally me saying, "everyone SMILE DARN IT!" through gritted teeth. This was the best the photographer

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