On Andy Cohen's Bravo show, "Watch What Happens Live," he has a game he plays called Fast Impressions where he gets celebrity to give him their fast impression on a certain subject. My Dad just passed a couple of days ago (more on that--TRUST ME--later). But I wanted to give a few fast impressions of my own in regards to the phone calls I've had to make to let people know that my Dad just died.
Aunt Judy (my Dad's sister): The first call I made and the only time I really cried on the phone not because of my Dad per se, but because I was telling a sister that her brother had died. I was thinking of me and my brother.
Trust me, these get lighter. I just had to start at the beginning
Cousin Danton: "This is my business line." Well, your wife gave it to me and I thought you might want to know that you're Uncle died.
Cousin Dalen: I never talk to him. And I thought he was his brother the whole time I was on the phone with him. Oops.
Uncle Ruben (my great uncle, my Grandmother's brother): Told me we should take his ashes and walk along Waikiki Beach just letting them trail behind us. He said that if we just kept walking, no one would notice. Kind of like farting, which both he and my Dad liked to do a lot.
Young-Hee (my Mom's best friend, imagine with thick Korean accent): "Oh, okay. I will get with your Mom later. I am driving in the car and I don't want to be on the phone. It makes me nervous."
Rita (the wife of my Dad's close friend, George...through tears): "I'm shocked. Your father was such a great...dancer."
"Uncle" Gary (family friend): Wants us to give him a call when we go to Hawaii to spread his ashes so he can join us for a Mai Tai. And he told me that the arrangements we made for our Dad with the Neptune Society are identical to the ones he's prepaid for. Also, his demeanor was the best of anyone I talked to...pleasant and fun without desperately trying to sound happy. Maybe he was having a Mai Tai when we were on the phone.
"Auntie" Mary (family friend and Gary's ex): "Oh, I have some GREAT stories to share." I'm hoping one of those stories isn't "I remember that time your Dad and I had sex."
Uncle Louie (my Mom's brother): "You're Dad was a great Dad...unlike MY father, who walked out on us when I was a child."
Mostly people cried or wanted to get on the phone quickly or had wonderful things to say about my Dad. My brother and I are asking people to give us their not so fast impressions of him so we can share those stories with my niece and nephew when they get older. Should be fun. A hell of a lot more fun than I'm having at this moment.
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