JULIUS SCHNEIDER....my father in law...

Today is the two year anniversary of my father in laws passing...Julius Schneider...which is hard to grasp, time really moves fast.  He treated me like a real daughter..he told me I was no longer a Pace, I was a Schneider now..and I loved him with all my heart.  He was 95, almost 96, and he was living with us the last few months of his life..it was an honor to take care of him.  The day he left I was sitting next to him waiting for the coroner to arrive and I thought, Oh my, I should take his hearing aids out and realized he still had his watch on...he NEVER took his watch off, even to bathe...so I quickly unlatched it and put it on my wrist so I wouldn't misplace it..it's still on my wrist today.  He bought season tickets to the Oakland A's so we could go together and it became "our time" for three years...He spent holidays with us and whenever I would call and say, Dad plan to come stay for a few days, he would simply say, "Okay, see you in a bit" and that was that...until he moved to the retirement village, then he would say, "Can't do it this week, got a HoDown to go to!"..he was happy in the end.  My husband lost his best and closest friend that day.  Ray took amazing care of his father in the last few months.  He bathed him and dressed him every day...it was precious to witness the love between them...I will forever miss him with all my heart...to Julius!

A DELAY IN SHARING….

I just realized that I did not post about the passing of my father in law, Julius, this past two weeks.  I know I made my post on Facebook almost that same day, at the request of  my husband, to let the outer peripheral of friends and acquaintances know…but just now realized I didn't share here....my mistake.  

We are all saddened at this tremendous loss in our lives…in particular, my husband and I, who shared our home and daily care around the clock for him for the past few months of his life,  find ourselves in a separate kind of mourning.  The silence is deafening around here now….it's taken a week to realize, "what do we do with our time now?".   And now we've moved into the "how quickly is this time moving on?" phase…it's been two weeks exactly today and yet if feels like yesterday and a year ago all at once.  Sometimes I find myself jumping up to make sure he's okay and realize…oh wait, he's not here. 

We still need to move forward and clear out the rest of his room…unfortunately his stinker of a  cat remains, but the candle is lit every night for him still….I'm utterly and completely lost without his presence in my life…he was a tremendous part of our lives and he will be forever missed.  He was my father in law, but treated me like his own daughter and loved me just as well.

My first visit to his home

     
                                 

Our Favorite pastime!

His last birthday here this past July…95!