![\"Dad](\"http:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Dad-tipping-hat-optimized-1024x683.jpg\")
Quite frankly, I wanted dad to last forever. Thankfully, I figured out how to do that before he passed. Whether your dad is still here or not, you can make him last forever too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea, of course, came from dad. He suggested we visit our hometown. \u201cSon let\u2019s go to San Antonio. I want two or three days of your time and a video camera. We\u2019ll go to places you\u2019ve never seen, share stories you\u2019ll never forget and hear about the family members you never met.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What an idea! On May 7, 2007, we met in downtown San Antonio at the infamous Gunter Hotel, built in 1909. As I zoomed in on Dad\u2019s face with the hotel coffee shop in the background, the reminiscing began. I helped Dad keep it short, but the details seeped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One February afternoon in 1947, Dad was in full Air Force uniform, and Mom was at the table with girlfriends, \u201cbetter looking than Katherine Hepburn,\u201d Dad beamed. \u201cI asked for her phone number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minutes later, we headed down Houston Street and eventually to Woodlawn Avenue where we hopped out of the car and I zoomed in on Dad\u2019s wrinkled face squinting from the hot afternoon sun. Wrinkled and worn, yes, but the twinkle was still in his eye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told the story of his and Mom\u2019s first apartment. The building is a law office today but the lawyers are kind to let us peek in and see their apartment walls and layout still in tact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One spot after another, we filmed and moved on. We stopped at his elementary school, Highland Park Elementary and the barbershop he played pranks on at age 12. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We ate lunch at La Fonda on Main Street, a Mexican restaurant where my parents sneaked off and flirted long before my brother, sister or I were born. We videotaped everything from boyhood homes to his parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 gravestones. Scene by scene, my father\u2019s life story unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every spot flashed emotions on Dad’s face \u2013 perhaps hidden for years but not from the camera. For generations to come, my daughters and son, as well as my niece and nephew, will sit with their children and grandchildren, witnessing the family story first-hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And dad, with his courage, heartaches, love and steadfast optimism \u2013 will forever live in their hearts and mine.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"Hopeful](\"http:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Dad-optimized-1024x683.jpg\")