I consider myself lucky that even at the age of 47, I still have my dad. He is doing very well, for someone who is 82 years young. He is a retired electrical engineer who worked for the Boeing Airplane Company for 37 years. I consider him my mentor, without his guidance and years of teaching, I would not know half of the things I know to do now. I am still learning stuff from him even now! He is a man of many hobbies, everything from scuba, private airplane and glider pilot, caving, (spelunking) amateur radio, recreational gold prospecting, boating, fishing, amateur astronomy, gardening etc, etc....... As I was growing up I found myself participating in many of his hobbies with him. I grew up with a home shop, and learned early on how to use tools and how to work on many things including household appliances and cars. I now have those tools, and use them in a small home hobby business that I started a couple years ago. (my website is www.kitestakes.com) The only building on my property that is not my own design and construction is my house, it is a single wide MH, but everything else including my shop was designed and built by myself. Because of him I can call myself a jack of all trades, and have had many experiences that many kids of my time did not have the chance to have. I actually feel that I did not live up to my potential, and that I am not the person I could have been due to some bad choices I made when I was much younger.
You posted a very touching accounting of your dad, we should all be as lucky as you to have a loving memory of the one who helped bring us into this world......