It was the fall of 2008, my senior year of high school. An ordinary evening, I was downstairs watching TV with my boyfriend (now husband) and my mom yelled down the stairs for me to come up. I saw her bloodshot eyes as soon as I walked around the corner and saw my dad sitting in the chair pale as a ghost. They told me the results came back from a routine procedure he had earlier that week and the results showed cancer. At that moment my world stopped. His prognosis at that time was 6 months to live, they prepared us for the worst.

My dad was a fighter.

On May 3rd, 2015 over 6 years after that first diagnosis dad took his last breath on a beautiful Sunday morning just as the sun was peaking out behind the clouds. Those 6 years were such a gift. He saw my older brother graduate Optometry school, me graduate college and encouraged me to go on for my Master's, and my younger brother graduate high school and moved him out to college. He walked me down the aisle in July of 2013. There were so many times we didn't think he would be there, but in true dad fashion, he wouldn't miss a thing.

The last few months without my dad have been so hard. My husband and I are expecting our first baby, a boy due in November. My dad was able to know about the baby and it brought him so much joy in those last weeks! It breaks my heart knowing my son will never know his grandpa but I will tell him every day about how loved he is and how great my dad was. I'm excited for the future and bringing joy to my family with this blessing we are given, yet a piece of me will always be with my dad.