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I just got back from seeing my father-in-law Gene, who is all sorts of awesome, but no replacement for my own father.
A few things I remember about Big Ben (what some folks called my dad… when he wasn’t in ear shot): he didn’t cook a lot, but what he did make was awesome. I also remember he was quite the avid gardener – we had corn, grapes and even a cherry tree in addition to your more normal home garden items. We had a strawberry patch, and it was my job as a little girl to make sure the slugs weren’t eating our strawberries. None of us could keep the birds from our cherries, sadly.