The following is a post Andy made about dad last year (the picture is of Dad holding Andy… and Sarah [our sister] tickling):

It’s
hard to believe that it’s been a whole decade, but at the same time it
isn’t. So much has changed in my life, and I owe a lot of credit to the
good things in my life to my father. My love for learning, my love for all things tech, and the base of all my computer knowledge comes from my Dad.

Its
only 11am, but I’ve talked about my Dad more than I have in the past 5
years, to random people who seem to remember. It’s a great feeling to
know that he touched so many lives.

The main question I’ve been asked today is: Are you sad?
How
do you answer that? Yeah I’m sad, but I’m not pounding the ground with
my fist screaming ‘WHY?!’. I’ve come to terms with everything - a long
time ago actually. Today is merely a day for reflection.

Reflect on Jim Kish with this article he wrote pulled from the September 9th 1992 edition of The Spirit of Bothwell Newspaper

"September 9, 1992 Men Things!

Andrew
and I did the “men” thing this weekend. We’ve done those for a couple
of years now. Last year we went bow hunting deer and bear or something
out in Skunk’s Misery. This year we went fishing and to the Murkirk Airshow.

Andrew wants to be a fighter pilot when he grows up, so he is fascinated by the air planes and awestruck by the pilots.

We
camped at Rick and Sue Wilkins and spent Saturday night around the fire
with a pair of colourful fliers by the names of Murray Kot and Terry
Lilliman. They were funny, kind-hearted and friendly to this little boy who couldn’t believe that “real fliers” had time to say “hi”.

Andrew sat quietly beside me with a big silly grin on his face as he watched antics of the pilots. He even memorized the “Grasshopper Song.”

Andrew met other pilots too. Pete and Sue and Bob all caught his attention. They all seem to come from the same basic mold as Kot and Lilliman. Funny and friendly.

The Wilkins pond was full of rock bass and Andrew fished until I finally dragged him away. His little boy ways, his excitement, his spirit of adventure and his heart was as big as the sky itself. He hated to go but knew his “dream come true” must end sometime. He
told me on the drive home that he wanted to get back to school to try
out his new pencils and stuff, but somehow I think he’ll boast of those
wonderful men and women that are WW II vintage plane pilots. His buddies back on the strip! I’m glad I took him!

Special
thanks to Murray and Terry, Pete and Bob Spence and Rick and Sue
Wilkins, you thrilled a little boy and made his dreams come true!"

I dunno, his writing lacks the flair that other Kishs seem to have…

We miss you Jim Kish.

Andy makes a good point, we’re all sad. We’re never happy that our dad died, but we don’t go around sobbing about it or anything like that. In fact, one of our …favorite… ways to deal with it is to make "Dead dad jokes". A few of my really close friends are able to respond to my "your mom" jokes with "yeah, well your dad’s dead". Its not that I want to trivialize his death or anything, its just that joking about it seems to be the best way to deal with it. Something tells me my dad would be pissed if we couldn’t have a few laughs at his expense.

Andy definitely had a closer relationship with dad than I did, and I’m assuming Sarah did as well. When you’re only 8 years old… you don’t really remember the relationship you had. I remember driving to London with him to get the Newspaper printed, and going to Canada’s Wonderland asking him I was going to die when we were on the Ghoster Coaster… but not a whole lot beyond that.

My friends know I don’t really talk about my dad - but when I do, I can talk about him comfortably, and I ask them not to apologize unless they were directly related to his death - which none of them were. I understand its a sign of condolence, but… I just don’t like the whole "I’m so sorry" thing. I much prefer when people just listen, or at least pretend to be interested when I talk about it. (Much like Alon does…) Or when they are just simply there as a friend. (Much like Sam does…)

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to share that post that Andrew did.

I wish dad was in that one more. I don’t have a picture of all of us together (3 kids + dad) …I have a lot of cute ones of andy and I though… these three are my favorite:

Thanks for the comment Andy.