Kenneth Joseph Petrine 12/30/1941 - 01/08/2007
My Dad holding Kenneth Anthony Petrine.
No training today. Sorry. I was going to swim this afternoon but I received a call at work that changed everything.
On December 30, 2006 we celebrated my Dad, Ken Petrine's 65th birthday. My brother Keith remarked that he was the same age, 35, as my Dad had been when his own Father had died.Those words turned out to be quite prophetic this morning when my Dad died of an apparent heart attack.
He was an amazing Grandpa to all his Grand kids. He used to take Paige out with him every Wednesday. They would stop at his stock broker, sometimes the library or the park, and then at Costco where Paige and him would have hot dogs for lunch. He knew Paige's names for all the parks. I could never keep track of them all and sometimes I would call him and say, "Paige wants to go to the 'brown' park, or the 'mud' park or the 'yellow' park. Where is that?"
This fall Kirk, Keith, my Dad, and I spent a week together eating, drinking, laughing, drinking, playing cards, drinking, golfing, and drinking. He told me the other day to make sure I didn't use all my vacation time this summer doing triathlons so that we could all take another trip. He always joked that he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach.
I spent the afternoon going through his address book calling people to let them know. If you knew him and I've missed your name I apologize that this is how you heard about it. You can contact me via e-mail and I'll give you the details of the arrangements. My e-mail address is the first letter of my first name followed by my last name @cox.net.
My Dad once said that if your kids don't do better than you did, you were a failure as a father. Well, in some respects he set the bar pretty high. I hope I haven't disappointed him.
Marc
