Blog

Lessons Learned from Missing Dad: Year 3 Edition – Dr. Rowena Briones Winkler

Written by Dr. Rowena Briones Winkler | Oct 8, 2016 4:00:00 AM

Today is October 7th.

Three years ago, I was getting ready to teach a social media class at my first “real job” post-graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University when my sister called.

It was 3:30 PM.

I immediately sensed something was wrong.

Unfortunately I was right.

My wonderful, funny, patient, and kind father had passed away after a hard fight
against esophageal cancer.

He was only 66.

And now here we are, three years later, and I’m thinking: damn, time flies by so fast.

LIFE flies by so fast. 

So now I have a question.

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just felt…I dunno, off?

Yeah, well I was having one of those weeks, and I finally realized it’s because we were approaching today.

The day I would never get see my dad laugh, or sing karaoke, or play poker for hours on Facebook ever again.

…and it totally, absolutely, positively…

sucks. like, really damn hard.

So what do I do? Well as per usual whenever I feel sad, I sing. 

In addition, I suppose due mostly in part by my recent Hamilton/Lin Manuel-Miranda inspiration, I wrote a spoken word piece about my dad’s passing as well:

…it still ain’t over yet…

Lastly, as a final homage to my dad, my hubs and I made corned beef with potatoes, onion, and white rice, a common Bob Briones food staple and my personal version of comfort food:

I am very proud to say that despite my fumbling a bit to figure out how to get this simple meal all together, it tasted exactly how I remember it, and Derek even thought it was yummy.

So it ended up being an ok day after all.

So there you go. I taught, I graded, I did a bit of research…and then I pulled together a song, a poem, and some food. I think dad would have been pleased.