Relocate to Wisconsin

   My Dad isn't here to read this blog....he could fix anything and everything...could refinish wood better than any finished carpenter or painter...helped us finish all the woodwork when we built our house and was there every day for months at 7 a.m.  in the heat at age 76....and would not have had it any other way. He thought it was a compliment and an honor...the honor was ours.  My father had open heart surgery and then guillam barre syndrome and a staff infection which kept him in intensive care for most of the last 3 months of his life which ended 5 years ago March 11th.  I was at the hospital every day, most of the day. During this time, my mother had a heart attack, open heart surgery, was in intensive care and then came to live with us during her recuperation. Life was Hell but I knew if it seemed bad for me...recovering from knee surgery and a recently diagnosed insulin dependent diabetic, it was worth for both parents who had been married 56 years.

                                                                         Frank  J. & Vera L.  Repa

     My favorite flower is a daisy...any color...any size...they are survivors and grow where they are planted and I love them. A couple months after my Dad's passing I was still having trouble getting thru a day without lots of tears falling as they are while I write this blog. We have a lamp post with terraced stone and landscape stone in front of our house. Every mother's day we go to the nursery and buy the brightly colored annuals that welcome us at the end of our driveway all summer long.  That spring, five years ago, green clumps began popping up thru the stone...gardner that I am not, I feared weeds had found their way thru the landscape cloth and landscape stone and now we would have to take it all apart, dig out the weeds and then plant our annuals.  To my surprise, a few days later with the spring showers, it became apparent that they were not weeds...but DAISIES !  I didn't plant them....they just grew...no I don't think that at all...I think my Dad put them there to remind us that he really is watching...that he misses us too  as much as we miss him.  And to remember to grow strong to the best of our abilities wherever we choose to be planted....He was a proud man with a gentle wit, quick smile...almost always a bow tie....and know Dad we try every day to be the kind of kids who grow strong where they are planted...thanks for the memories....And the daisies....