Our Father Harry Alan Quinn, Retired Career Foreign Service Officer With The American Embassy Died 14 Years Ago On President's Day : Remebering Him

This was pretty emotional for me when my brother announced at lunch that our father had passed away fourteen years ago today on President's Day. It caught me off guard this bit of information and I must say that I paused and teared up inside away from the notice of my mother and younger brother.
It was a very emotional time for me fourteen years ago and the armor went up not down as I flew out to California, to San Leandro outside of San Fransisco to be exact to be a part of the last moments with my father's ashes and all those that were coming to pay their respects to him as a man, a friend, a family man and father and a business associate. I was both moved and touched by the warmth and the display of respect and the stories that were shared with us about him - many of which we had no idea about and yet which were so very welcome.
Our father was always rather quite a private man. It may have all started way back when he returned from doing his military service during World War II and his experience in France which must have deeply scarred him. He never spoke about it : no details just the names of a few of the places that he had been in France but never any details about his experience there in France.
I would have loved to have heard about them. I would have loved to have heard more about his life before I was born. Being the first son born in 1953 it would have been nice to have heard more about his experiences in California when he met our mother that is still alive and was at lunch with us earlier today in West Virginia, Martinsburg to be exact.
Mostly what returned earlier today at the mention of our father's death being today on President's Day was the last few years of conversations over the phone. He would call me here in northern Virginia as he went back to school at Berkeley and he would simply tell me about his wine discoveries there in California and ask me how I was as well as how was my family? I liked that, no judgment : just warmth and concern and interest in me , my life, food and wine and of course my family. We would talk ballet and art and culture, too. I liked that : little or no stress, just good building blocks to luxuriate in and grow from. Thanks Dad.
At lunch my brother gave me a copy of his book of poems that he's just published ( a copy for me and one for my son that he was thinking was going to join us for lunch ) called " AMASSUNU " : Poems by Eric Quinn & Ampersand Press 2010. As he writes : " Ammassunu " is an Ameridian word meaning " the sound of water ". Both the Amazon river and Amazonas State in Brazil take their names from it. My brother was born in Brazil. I look forward to reading these thirty or so odd poems and will include more about them soon.
It was great to see both my mother and my brother today and we all looked and felt great. It was a real treat. We spoke both of our other brother and of our father and it was a very enriching time for the three of us which is always the five of us as we have been a family of five for forever and each one of us carries the other four with them always.
Cheers to us all that are still alive and cheers to you Dad that is still alive in the four of us. I hope that this reaches others that you have known besides us and that you and your presence and example have influenced and touched over the nearly seventy years that you lived here on this earth with us. Take care, TONY