Love Lasts Forever

I'll be completely honest with you. I never knew that Love Lasts Forever. I had to read those words myself and think about them for quite a long time, even years, before I finally got it. Those words are chiseled on my father's headstone at Florida National Cemetery. His last words, an epitaph, for anyone willing to pay him and his fellow military departees a visit.

Love Lasts Forever. How can this even be possible? My father passed away in 2006. There is no more love that he can share with his family or even with me. Love is not on the top of my mind during times of mourning and pure grief. Memories and photographs, yes. The words spoken in the past, yes. But love? Yet there they were, those words: LOVE LASTS FOREVER.

My dad loved taking his family to the movies. He grew up on John Wayne westerns. When I was 5, I saw Jaws in the theater. It scared the shit out of me, but it was awesome. I knew it was all fake on the silver screen, but it felt real enough to me. Yet I knew that my dad was there to protect us, to keep us all safe.

In 2014, when I saw the film Interstellar with my sons, the scientist played by Anne Hathaway said the following, and it really spoke to me:

"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it. "

It all finally made sense to me. Everything clicked into place. I understood what he meant. My dad had found the best last words possible to leave as his legacy because love does last forever. The love I have for my dad will never go away. It still exists even as if he were around today. All those memories and phone conversations and emails. They were love. And in turn, my dad's love for me lasts forever. Wherever he has gone for his eternal rest, his love still exists. His love for his family lasts forever. It is the tie that bonds us all. It is the subconscious fuel that forces me to get out of the bed in the morning to make sure my own family has what it needs. It is the galactic glue that drives me into my own understanding of my tiny little role in the vast universe.

Dad had the last laugh. Loved forever at last I am.

Epitaph on my father's headstone.