2010 has been a challenging year so far

Over the last few years I have had a couple of challenging years, from a personal perspective, but the first 30 odd days of 2010 have been a real challenge for me. Today one more challenge presented itself when Laura lost her father to his battle with cancer. In some regards it was not a surprise - he had been sick for some time and for many years Laura had a distant relationship with her dad - but neither of those lessens the blow. Laura had, over the last year, been more in touch with her Dad which helped to re-establish their relationship and it was nice to see that she felt more comfortable with that. She also found comfort in the prayer beads that her Dad had sent her last year. But today was still very hard for her and hard for me since I am still in Nashville while she is at home by herself.

Laura's Dad was an interesting man. Grant it he did make some bad decisions over the years of his life, but I guess we all make decisions that are bad and it is only their impact on others that truly make those decisions painful. He did make some good decisions as well - his marriage to Laura's Mom and fathering three wonderful daughters would have to rate the top in my mind. He spent a number of years in the US Army part of which he spent as a body guard for the President. He was a black belt in Judo and spent many years studying Yoga (even before Yoga was the "in thing") and was a big part in the Nashville Yoga community along with his church. Later in life he looked after his wife Robbie as she began to suffer from Alzheimer's. 

Yes he made mistakes but without him the world would be so very different and I think it is safe to say that the Bridger family in Australia is grateful that he was part of bringing Leslie Bell to the world, the Lincoln family (especially Ashley and Brittni) are grateful for his part in bringing Lisa Bell to the world and I am ever so grateful for his part in bringing Laura Bell to this world (and I know from her work women around the world will also appreciate that).

He will be buried Thursday, February 4th with Military Honors and I know the Bell sisters will come together in spirit to celebrate who he was to them.

In memory ......