
I love you, dad - kjackson2012
http://notch.tumblr.com/post/37823268132/i-love-you-dad
======
edw519
Notch, if you're reading this, my deepest sympathy. I understand the
devastation of losing a parent; I lost my mother about a year ago. I'm still
not "back to normal" and don't know if I ever will be.

I used to do art, music, and comedy, and even practiced my religion, often
just for her. I loved to make her laugh and it was so easy to make her proud.
In the past year, I have done none of that stuff and don't know when or if I
ever will.

Programming is one of the few things I've ever done that I never did just to
say, "Hey Ma! Look what I did!" She never understood it. So in the past year,
it's one of the few things I've been able to do. I've written a ton of code
and taken great comfort it in.

I won't even attempt to give advice; none of the advice I've received from
well-intentioned others in the past year has been helpful. I just hope you,
me, and others like us find comfort in the wonderful memories of beloved
parents and find a way to move on with our lives.

More about my mother here: <http://edweissman.com/betty-weissman-1930-2011>

~~~
nollidge
There's no such thing as "back to normal" after trauma. You just settle into a
new normal.

~~~
adeaver
I second this. My dad died over 20 years ago and I still feel the lose some
days. I still sometimes think I see him in a crowd.

You never, ever get over it. Just get passed it.

~~~
BigglesZX
As someone dealing with my parents' shift into their "older years" and
wondering about the future, I found myself quite moved by this. Thank you for
sharing it.

~~~
hluska
I agree 100%...

------
jbail
That gave me chills.

I'm constantly impressed by people that have the ability to share their
personal life with the world in an honest way that reveals the vulnerabilities
we all share as humans. It is so much more refreshing than the opposite, where
we pretend our lives are perfect and we never experience moments of doubt or
melancholy.

It is rare to see someone make a post like this. This is precisely what makes
it so refreshing and beautiful.

~~~
diego
You may be interested in my post from yesterday.

<http://longposts.com/1990082>

~~~
at-fates-hands
My aunt went through the same situation. She became clinically depressed for
several years after going through the IVF process several times. She was on
medication and had completely withdrawn from life. It wasn't until they
decided instead to adopt a child from Korea that she changed, almost
overnight.

After the successful adoption, my aunt completely changed. All she ever wanted
was a family and to raise children. Adopting their son from Korea inspired her
again. She got off medication and returned to her fun, outgoing self. It was
an amazing transformation. They wee both in their mid forties when they
decided to adopt.

I'm so sorry for your lose, but please, don't get discouraged and give up on
having a family. Consider adoption. There are so many different kinds of
adoption available these days and there are so many children in need of good
loving families like yours.

If you need more information, DM me and I can go in more detail about their
experience.

~~~
run4yourlives
Damn, This.

There are options available for people that want to have a family, and god
knows there are far to many children out there that can really, really use a
loving parent or two.

As a father of two I may come off as smug here, but I can tell you that the
first year of a child's life is more going through the motions. The following
years are really where you can make a difference, and where they certainly
make a difference in you.

I seriously hope once they are over their grief period, that couple takes your
advice. A child out there could have his life changed forever because of it.

------
speeder
I am very happy that my parents are married to each other, and my alive
grandparents too, and that they don't have issues like this (what my father
"abuse" is coca-cola, he rarely drinks, and noone smokes).

And I am very sad to see that all other families are crumbling.

I am seeking a girlfriend that wants to be a mother, and I am not finding,
most of them are self-centered, and come from divorced families, the only girl
that ever became my girlfriend (and is still a good friend) was the only one
that I found that still had married parents.

~~~
pekk
Many women want to be mothers. Having a kid is easier than falling off a log,
it just takes time.

However, it's not correct to imply that women with divorced families are worse
somehow.

~~~
ColinWright

        > Having a kid is easier than falling off a log,
        > it just takes time.
    

Wrong, and to say so like that demonstrates both ignorance and a significant
lack of sensitivity.

~~~
gknoy
I think he's correct. Being pregnant and giving birth is tremendously
challenging (and rewarding, to many), but is a drop in the bucket compared to
the entire rest of your life being about Not You. Not only do you face the
constant lack of sleep, but you now have to worry about financial planning,
raising the kid to be a good human, etc.

Having a kid is easy. Raising a kid (well) is hard.

~~~
ColinWright
Sorry, but you too are showing breath-taking ignorance and considerable lack
of sensitivity and tact, even with the clues staring you in the face.

Let me be just a little more blunt - it's not only the case that for some
people having children is not easy, but in addition, it's a big deal that they
CAN'T HAVE CHILDREN.

Now, have you got the point?

------
steferson
My uncle hanged himself after years being an alcoholic, the alcohol destroyed
his family and pushed him away from everybody. Near the end of it all he was
acting delusional, lying to his bar friends about how good his life was, just
stright up making stuff up, like having a huge barbecue in his non existant
farm, or so I heard through my dad. He killed himself between christmas and
new year. His son spent christmas in my house, and I had the idea to go visit
him, and days later he killed himself. For the longest time I blamed myself, I
kept thoughts like "maybe if I had gone...", I kept believing that maybe the
wanting to go see him was God's way to stop the tragedy from happening. I no
longer blame myself, though I do wonder if having gone there would have
changed anything.

Anyway, powerful blog post

------
redad
My father has substance abuse problems too (alcohol dependency for 20 years)
and it has destroyed his relationship with my siblings and my mother, he's
going to lose what little he has left very soon and I genuinely fear he's
going to do something very similar to what is mentioned here. I am the only
child that will talk to him without contempt and I have long since left home.
He lost his own father very recently and that pushed him deeper.

What do I do? How do you deal with a situation like this?

~~~
alexakarpov
Short answer is - you don't, really. There's very little one can do to help a
grown-up person with a history of substance abuse. Unless you believe in God:
but the efficacy of that approach is, clearly, impossible to scientifically
verify.

~~~
illuminate
"Unless you believe in God"

If only the belief in God sincerely caused a difference in substance abuse,
I'd be endorsing religiosity for its own sake!

Of course, I'm sure you're referencing the will of God, but considering how
many sincere faithful have their struggles with physical addiction, the belief
alone is not enough :(

~~~
alexakarpov
There are some indicators that it does make a difference; too lazy to dig
those up, but it should not be surprising that adhering to some religious
doctrine that discourages activity X should have some effect on reducing the
frequency of X abuse among the adherents (not just the reported numbers, but
actual values too).

However, what I wanted to say is more like - if you don't have a crane, yet
need to lift an X-wing fighter from the bottom of the swamp, you have to use
the Force. Nothing else will suffice. Basically, both the damage caused by
substance abuse, and, more importantly, the deeper reasons people stick to it,
are so huge, you need to pray for a miracle (and people who believe in God
often do).

~~~
kristofferR
On the other hand - when you strongly discourage something and decide to make
doing it wrong/immoral, you also make it very taboo and stigmatized to talk
about, which can be incredibly dangerous.

This is very obvious with illegal drug use and sex, problems related to them
(drug addiction and unwanted pregnancies/STDs) are much higher in places where
it is strongly discouraged, stigmatized and hard to talk about.

There are a lot of sad stories where people who knew they had a drug problem
didn't dare seeking help/talking about it in fear of either the law or
negative reactions from the people around them.

Wrong/lack of information about safety is also a huge issue due to making
stuff immoral and taboo, millions of people in Africa have died and are
currently suffering because of the way extramarital sex and condom use have
been (and still are) handled and talked about.

Personally I think complete openness instead of moralization/stigmatization is
a much better solution to deal with difficult issues. Granted, I'm a very
socially liberal guy, but I think most evidence is pointing to the fact that
information and sympathy is leading to more desirable social outcomes than
repression and stigmatization.

For example, let's take something extremely controversial as pedophilia. The
vast majority of society is of the understandable opinion that being a
pedophile is immoral, often downright evil. People unfortunately don't realize
how extremely important the different between simply being a pedophile (having
sexual thoughts about children) and actually committing such acts are.

I think even something as pedophilia should be freely discussed and that
pedophiles should be offered rational stigma-free ways to deal with their
sexuality in ways that won't hurt children instead of being treated like scum
by society. The way we deal with the issue today is hurting everyone involved
- both the pedophiles and children.

A ton of people undoubtedly disagrees with me - and that's understandable from
an emotion point of view. However - I've never seen any research or statistics
actually indicating that punishing people for their problems (either directly
through the law or through stigma) leads more significant positive societal
outcomes than helping and sympathizing people with their problems does.

~~~
jacoblyles
Alcoholics Anonymous famously has "turning your life over to a higher power"
as one of their 12 steps. They also provide a very open community. They seem
to have some success.

~~~
kristofferR
AA is actually about exactly what I'm talking about, they're about talking
openly about your problems and receiving sympathy from others who either have
similar issues or have overcome them without fear of being judged or looked
down upon from others.

That being said I think scientific evidence-based solutions are generally a
better option than AA. Don't get me wrong - I'm not disputing that AA
certainly has helped a lot of people - but the statistics aren't looking great
either.

------
tharris0101
I've never met Markus Persson, but its obvious from reading his tweets and
posts that he is a good person. If anyone deserves the success he's had, its
him.

~~~
jspthrowaway2
I'm not so sure that he is entirely a good person or worth this level of
praise. He spends a lot of time apologizing for Twitter drama that he invents,
and it seems like he has the tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.

The Yogscast debacle comes to mind. For those that are unaware, Yogscast, one
of the _biggest_ promotional engines sending traffic to Minecraft, went to
Minecon on their own dime and did an autograph panel. Notch responded by
eviscerating them on Twitter for, among other things, wishing to be helped out
financially for their appearance (which cost them quite a bit, and, let's be
honest, Mojang is not broke; Mojang also sold the rights to broadcast
_Yogscast's own show_ without asking). This was all based upon drama invented
in Notch's head, and he had to profusely apologize later.

It seems like Notch goes out of his way to find drama. However good of a
person he is tends to be undone by his occasionally childish behavior.

~~~
eric_h
And now, reading this username, I realize I've been trolled... Nevertheless, I
believe my points still stand.

~~~
jspthrowaway2
You have not been trolled. I, too, laud him for the post, I just don't like
Hacker News getting carried away and comparing him to Jesus incarnate. As for
the appropriateness of the timing, I was responding to a comment that
extrapolated from this blog post to reflect upon him as a person, so it's
unfair to tell me "this isn't the time" but not the person I'm responding to.

It's also fairly condescending to assume based on my opinion that I've never
experienced pain on Notch's level. Buddy, you have not experienced pain on
_my_ level.

~~~
freyr
> Buddy, you have not experienced pain on my level.

Now does that excuse you for seeking out drama in this thread or not? I'm
confused.

------
thispassisweak
This hit pretty close to home. My father just moved in with me after calling
me last week and telling me he was going to kill himself. I managed to calm
him down and convince him to move in with me for a while, so hopefully this is
the beginning of the road to recovery.

Reading the comments helps to know there are others helping to carry the
burdens of their own families. Thanks to everyone for sharing your stories.

~~~
ForrestN
Make sure he is getting professional treatment. It is a bad idea to try to
take on the burden of a loved one's serious mental illness on your own.

~~~
Sakes
This is a very good point. If your loved one told you he had a broken leg, you
wouldn't try and fix it yourself, you would seek a professional.

------
recycleme
A lot of readers will probably have some self-reflection after reading this.
It might even push some to give their parents a call, or sort out some issues.
Even someone with a perfect family will remember that nothing lasts forever.
Enjoy your time friends.

------
lectrick
Did anyone else just stare at the screen for a while after reading that?

~~~
evanmoran
Yes.

------
phaus
I've had the misfortune of personally knowing at least 3 people who have
killed themselves while mixing medication with alcohol. One of them was on
antidepressants, but the other two weren't being treated for any sort of
mental condition.

There seems to be an awful lot of people out there who think the warning
labels on medication are to be taken about as seriously as the tags on a
mattress. I promise you, the warnings are there for a reason. You can be an
otherwise perfectly happy person and end up shooting yourself in the face if
you have a bad reaction. If you are taking any sort of medication that
prohibits alcohol, please follow the directions. Your friends and family
members don't want to read your obituary.

------
DigitalSea
This story hits close to my heart. I lost my mother a little over a year ago
due to chronic alcoholism. She had been drinking for years, battled post-natal
depression and one day we convinced her she was really sick and needed to go
to the hospital. Her liver was in the process of shutting down, she was so
dehydrated and malnourished her veins had shrunk making it difficult for
doctors to take blood or put in drips. I remember the day that she went to
hospital I forced her to go to the doctors and every test they ran came back
red, her cardiogram yielded a weakened heart rhythm and it was at that point
she realised she needed to go to the hospital, little did we know it was too
late to help her.

The doctors were shocked at the state she was in. He offered to call an
ambulance, but my mother wanted to be driven to the hospital instead. I knew
she would try and talk her way out of it by refusing an ambulance, but finally
convinced her there was no way she wasn't going. She was obviously scared and
we all told her that going to hospital meant she'd get better and she probably
wouldn't be in there very long, I didn't expect she would be dying in hospital
two days later.

As soon as she was admitted she went straight into the emergency ward. She was
under watch 24/7, hooked up to machines that monitored everything. She was
still very much with it, just not as energetic. She could hold a conversation,
she just looked aged but wasn't delirious or anything. We thought she was
going to get better, she was in emergency for one day before being moved to a
ward where she wasn't being monitored as carefully. I think it was a mistake
moving her to a ward so soon.

She never told anyone she was scared or needed help. Apparently she would call
my dads sister and cry to her when everyone was asleep saying she was afraid
of dying. My dads sister tried to take her to the doctors repeatedly, but I
think knowing something was wrong and being scared stopped her from wanting to
go to the doctors until it was too late.

She was on 4 saline drips (one in each wrist and one in each knee) to try and
hydrate her body. I still remember seeing her lying there with 4 drips, I
didn't even know they could do that. She started showing signs of recovery,
was more level-headed, but tired and lethargic. She actually seemed like she
was getting better, her pulse was getting stronger and the hydration she was
getting was helping her, and then at 3am one morning after being in the
hospital for 2 days we all got a call that she went into cardiac arrest and
they tried to resuscitate her for 1 hour before giving up.

I often wonder if she would have lived longer if she didn't go to hospital.
Part of me thinks that her body couldn't handle four drips pumping saline into
her body 2 days straight constantly, she had a weak pulse and the fact her
veins had shrunken to me thinks she should have stayed in the emergency ward
for a couple more days.

She left behind her son (me) and 5 daughters one of which only just turned 8
years old. It's made my dad incredibly strong, I've never seen him cry before.
I still remember that day vividly, he's had his fair share of alcohol related
problems and has been battling depression and a nervous disorder his entire
life due to being abused as a child but I think he's stayed strong for us. I
am worried that one day a switch might flip in his head and he'll have a
breakdown, but I don't really want to think of that.

I know how you feel Notch, you never quite get over losing a parent. I
partially blame myself for my mothers death. She had a drinking problem for
years and I did nothing. She was obviously in decline and although everyone
tried to get her to go to the doctors, she wouldn't. Did we try hard enough?

Thanks for sharing your story Notch, I think there are many who have lost a
parent due to an alcohol incident like yourself. It's hard to tell people you
lost a parent to alcohol, let alone talk about losing a parent in such a
horrible way.

People say drugs like marijuana are bad, alcohol is the worse of them all.

My mother was 48 years old.

~~~
rehack
Thanks for sharing your story, its very moving and wish the very best for you,
and all your siblings.

>People say drugs like marijuana are bad, alcohol is the worse of them all

Totally agree. I have seen, my close friend (from college) totally
disintegrate because of alcohol abuse. He did a lot of very nasty things to
the persons he loved. Lost his job (several times). Got a job after a long
time with difficulty and then lost it again. It became so bad, that he became
delirious, and started hallucinating about some people being present when he
was alone. And being the _raw_ and _powerful_ person he is, its very difficult
for anybody to help him, unless he himself cooperates.

After seeing him at close quarters, and trying to be of help, I can say that
alcohol abuse is the worst kind of evil. Now a days, in India, they show a lot
of mandatory ugly-cigarette warnings before showing a movie. Every time I see
those, I am reminded, that there can be none worse than alcohol abuse.
Cigarette smoking is known to cause cancer, and is bad. But alcohol abuse is
like cancer of the mind. Where the person himself/herself becomes a cancer for
their close family.

------
chubbard
That was a touching story, and I'm sorry to hear about your father's death. My
best friend's father was an alcoholic. I watched as my best friend struggled
trying to build a relationship with him. I don't think he ever had any of the
touching moments you described with his father, and I think it still affects
him to this day.

It sounds like you have good memories about him, and knew that he loved you.
And for the most part that's all we can ask from our fathers.

------
lifeisstillgood
Thank you

We have to stop pretending our professional lives are divorced from our
personal - they grow out of one another, and in programming like other forms
of writing the end result depends hugely on who we are as people - Hemmingway
would never have written about a boy wizard.

Notch's work flows from who he is, and that flows a lot from who his father
was.

Keep on flowing

------
tinok
This post and comments here made me leave work early to go home and hug my
kids extra tight this evening.

------
singleserv
While there are sympathetic ears, I thought I would share my own story, just
so I can let it out.

I'm the son of immigrants who worked hard to get me the best education that
they could afford. My family have been through hard times and good times, and
back to hard times recently since the housing bust.

Money had always been a thorn for as long as I can remember.

Some time during college, while tasting such freedom (education afforded by
grants and loans from my father), I began to experiment and grow more distance
from my parents. My mother was having a hard time for various reasons, and she
was very disappointed that I didn't call her every week as she had asked.

I stopped calling, and sometimes ignored the calls. The relationship began to
sour, with hateful messages left in voicemail, admonishing me for something or
another.

It wasn't always bad. I would go back for holidays and such, but they would
always say, that I need to visit every Christmas and Thanksgiving, because
that is the right thing to do. It was always like that: I need to do something
because it is the thing to do. I can't be friends with someone at school
because they had a quarrel with my friend's parents, and it is the right thing
to support your parents. I have to break up with my girlfriend (way back in
highschool) because I need to focus on my college education. I need to repay
them when I become rich because they provided for me.

I haven't seen them in 3 years now. I'm afraid my father is forever doomed to
be guilted into providing for my mother, who forever states how she hates my
father being inadequate in so many ways. She says she can't leave him because
she has no way of sustaining herself. He says he loves her, and that she is
ill and doesn't mean what she says to me and him, but I can't tell if he's
lying to himself because the alternative is too sad to contemplate, him having
cut off his relationship with his own mother and family because she compelled
him to do so a long time ago.

Anyways. There's too much to this story. I can go on but the details don't
matter.

I wish I had a cool story about my dad saving a dog in the ice. I don't. But I
did have a loving family once. It got ripped apart by money and lies and
insecurities, and I've been left with estrangement and a sense of longing for
over three years now. I could give them a call, as I've done before, but I've
been there once and it didn't help -- I feel like I'm healthier this way.

I'm thankful for my dad who continues to say that he believes in me, through
sparse email correspondences. I'm thankful for my mother who insisted that I
be educated well. I wish we had it better, and I wish this guilt doesn't last
forever.

~~~
saraid216
As someone else whose story has some similarities, I can only encourage you to
stand your ground. I'd recommend that, before you try again, build a support
network of friends who are aware of the details of your story and at least
mostly agree with you. The way to stay emotionally healthy when resuming
contact is to have people to fall back on when things don't turn out well, to
have people who'll support you whichever direction you jump.

------
eranation
One of the most honest, deep, meaningful and moving posts I've seen here in my
short history in HN. I wish you'll never know sorrow again, my deepest
condolences.

------
Aco-
Brought a tear to my eye, that last paragraph was intense.

------
gprasanth
Why do bad things happen to good people?

~~~
kristofferR
Because randomness isn't conscious.

As humans we tend to place a lot of purely human ideals/ideas on the non-human
world, but they're all actually things we've just made up.

Goodness/badness/fairness/unfairness aren't "real things" existing in nature;
they’re just something humanity has created in our minds and societies. No
things has an inherent goodness or badness, we as humans just think/decide it
is.

Don't get me wrong, it's essential for human well being to have such things in
place, but it's not something we can subject non-conscious things to.

Gravity doesn't care, and can't care or know in any way, whether the guy soon
to die from a coconut hit to his head falling from a tree was a child rapist
or a humble "saint" always bringing happiness to other people.

~~~
gprasanth
Perfectly understood what you said. Good and Bad are associated to things by
individuals.

I think I probably wanted to know what one should do when Bad things happen.

And, I guess I know the answer to that already: just keep moving forward.

~~~
shawn-butler
I think endeavoring to no longer be surprised when Bad things happen is a good
response. I mean not just ignoring it in order to move past, but accepting the
world for what it is and anticipating suffering.

Probably a stoic at heart I guess, but I'm not sure I see any other way.

------
peterhost
Haven't seen it mentionned a lot in comments, but it also happens that drugs
are not the culprit. Your brain might be, or more largely your DNA. Drugs and
alcohol are just ways (self destructive) to try and cope with the fact of
simply being alive.

I had such an alcohool problem when i was 26 or so (some serious, drink alone
thing). Only 10 years afterwards was i diagnosed with a problem in neuro-
trnamitters, which another drug (medecine) just made disappear. I've been
living 6 years in a world without fear and mental pain, since, something i've
never experienced before. My brain was the main culprit.

I just wish we could advance our understanding of the brain so as not to serve
people anymore of "god hate you" / "it's your fault" bullshit.

I'm gonna kick some creeper's asses tonight in memory of all the suffering
ones (yeah, creeper's are good scapegoats, i know it's not their fault
either;). Thx all of you for sharing, i've spent an interesting evenig reading
the whole thing.

------
jggonz
Thank you for sharing, it helps you and all of us that have lost a loved one.
I lost my father to liver cancer this past January. He was my best friend.
Almost every day I replay wonderful memories of conversations, funny moments,
and life events we experienced together. I now seek for ways to connect to him
and keep those memories alive. I am working on writing them down, so that I
can somehow show my toddler some day the wonderful father I had. I collect the
tools that we shared to work on electronic projects and cars. The thought of
holding something that my dad held in his hands makes it easier.

Keep loving your dad, and each time you replay a memory in your mind, write it
down... It'll keep you two connected.

------
kiskis
What is interesting is that he did Ludum Dare competition just days after
this. Maybe that was a good therapy for him as well, but in any case that's
quite respectable to be able to focus after a tragedy like that.

~~~
jiggy2011
Ludum dare doesn't start for another day or so. He said on twitter that he
will not be doing this one due to scheduling conflicts or something.

~~~
SquareWheel
ksikis is talking about the Ludum Dare that took place shortly after the
events detailed above. If you go to the "About page" in Minicraft, his contest
entry, you'll see the dedication to his dad.

------
simonebrunozzi
I'm sorry to hear this. I love my dad, who is still alive, and I think I
should try to spend more good time with him, now that we live far away. My
sympathy to you, Notch.

------
bstahlhood
Notch, I am sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing. You are strong. Thank
you for all your awesome contributions to the the gaming and programming
communities.

------
toadi
My father was a alcoholic too. I hated him too and haven't seen him for years.
Never wanted to have kids becaue I always think I'm not good enough.

Now I have a kid and even I'm doing better then my father I feel bad because I
think I could do better. Because I want my own life and take care of him.
Don't know if I balance it right....

Anyway your yought can make you strong or break you... You never know...

------
rdl
Even though I think drugs should be decriminalized or legalized, it's clear
there needs to be a lot of effort put into helping people who have problems
with them (including alcohol).

If you add up all the years of life destroyed by drug addiction, and all the
external harms, spending all the money we currently spend on prohibition on
treatment would be a bargain.

------
bogatyrjov
I understand when somebody writes an article in the format : "When I founded
XXX, <some incredibly touching story>" or "I am <11-15> years old and this is
my side project, check it out". But when You tell about someones death in your
story to promote your product, if it is your close relative... I think it is
disgraceful.

------
bond
Wow, didn't expect that ending... :(

~~~
marshray
I did expect that ending and was sad to be right. Why do we only take the time
to say these things after it's too late?

------
asfdfdasfafdsss
Notch, I'm so sorry. I know what it is like to lose a parent. It sucks and it
doesn't seem to go away.

What a great post. Thanks for sharing your life with us. Please continue to
make your dad proud, and be a path for the rest of us in similar circumstance.

------
colmvp
"I now have an entire life to live without him existing." Beautiful but sad
words.

~~~
sage_joch
Even more poignant given the beginning, where he wrote how his dad "had an
entire life to live before I even existed".

------
slajax
+1 for being transparent with your personal life. Very commendable.

------
ruggeri
Like others here, I was touched by the honesty of this. Thanks.

------
c141charlie
Very moving. Now inverse the situation, where it's your child who dies. The
pain would be at least 2x worse. And this is what happened in Connecticut
today.

------
kayoone
I dont know if Notchs recently failed marriage has something todo with this
but it looks like he had a very very tough last year :(

------
PhrosTT
The strongest plants grow in harsh conditions.

------
sbate
I love Notch even more. Grumpy swede.

------
acremades
I am sorry to hear you had to go through that Notch. My heart and prayers go
to you and your family.

------
pacmon
This was a very lovely note to read. My father died about two hours ago. I
miss him immensely.

------
shanellem
Incredibly touching post.

------
richardlblair
I wish I could put into words how sorry I am that this happened.

------
zunky
Thank you for sharing and my deepest sympathy.

------
quizotic
beautifully written, and resonates with all us who have lost their dads. Thank
you.

------
lewisflude
:(

------
theltrj
tragic, so sorry for your loss, thank you for sharing

------
sonabinu
my heart goes out to you Notch.

------
ranza
and now i cry...

