Why April 1 will never be April fool’s day to me

April 1, 2011. I was staying up with my Dad along with my Mom. It was around 1 or so in the morning when my brother came in to relieve us. I would go to the basement where I was sleeping and next thing I know, it’s around 5:45 AM and my brother comes down to wake me up saying he thinks that Dad had passed away.

I honestly didn’t know what to say or do as I was trying to wake up and make sense of what Chet just said. I would go upstairs to see Mom holding Dad and crying like I have never seen her cry before. I noticed that it was snowing outside.

We cleaned him up and got him ready for the funeral home to take his body to do what we as a family had arranged for.

Soon as Dad left the house, Mom wanted us to arrange to have the hospice bed and equipment cleared out of the house and get it back to the way it was.

We’d been making the phone calls, text messages, emails etc to close family before any social media posts were made.

The day was so surreal. I don’t think I ever changed out of the clothes that I was wearing when I was asleep. I never showered.

Chet went home and it was just Mom and me. By the time I went to sleep that night, which was around 10:00 or so, I fell asleep and I slept the hardest I have in a long time.

In the picture I put with this post, my Dad is with his older sister Fern. Her birthday was April 1. She passed away (I believe) in 2003. Dad was the youngest of his family and was the last of his siblings to pass away.

I gained an appreciation for artists like Pete Fountain, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Louis Armstrong thanks to my Dad.

Dad has shown up in dreams from time to time. He’s shown himself in some beautiful ways. Once in 2019, I was in Pittsburgh with my dear cousin Lisa about to attend an event associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers. She had a playlist of various Christian songs but also included some other inspirational songs. Louis Armstrong came on with What a Wonderful World and I would get a text from Chet announcing the birth of his first grandchild and how this ties in with Dad is that the line of the song that was sung at the time of the text was “I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, they’ll learn so much more than I’ll ever know “. All I could do was look to the sky and say thank you Dad.

Dad taught me a work ethic that told me that I didn’t need a college education to succeed in life. He taught me how to be a servant to others. And these days I might be very burnt out on customer service but at my core I always want to help people. I have friends and family that I want to do more than just send encouraging texts and to be praying for them.

So don’t ever look for me to play an April Fools joke on anyone. The day has too much emotion for me to think of it as funny. Even though I think Dad would approve of it. I just can’t.

In memory of Chester D Clauser-March 17, 1932-April 1, 2011.

I love you Dad.