Love and Miss My Parents

It's easy to see both my mother and my father's personality makeup within myself...for better or for worse.  Each of them had their own individual strengths and frailties.  My mother died in 2002 and my father in 2013...both had their lives shortened from extensive cigarette smoking over the course of decades...back when it was customary for teenagers to smoke and little kids (like me) could walk a few blocks to a convenience store and buy a pack for their mommy.  Although smoking is something I've never done and thankfully don't have to consider the consequences from it, I...like each of us...have my own unique physical makeup.  That made for the necessity to have a congenitally defective heart valve replaced and aortic aneurysm repaired three years ago...and to undergo current procedures to either rule out or confirm cancer elsewhere.  But there's only so much I have control over...beyond that I'm at peace with where my health is taking me.  As for my parents' personalities, my mother enjoyed routine, simplicity, and the enjoyment and appreciation of what was going on around her...she loved her crocheting and TV shows.  My father was much more goal-driven and loved the adventure of pursuing new skills and experiences...like his mastery of the unicycle and the piano keyboard in his senior years, for example.  Mama, on the down side, could get depressed while daddy was prone to anger and impatience...especially when around others.  I'd like to think I got all the good stuff from them, but we adult offspring know that it's often a package deal and you get some of it all, the good and the bad.  But I dearly love and miss them both...