"Family, friends, loved ones, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life of a couple who lived their life to the fullest, though it was cut tragically too short. It was almost forty two years ago that my father proposed to my mother up on a hill in Sunset Valley; surprisingly, the same hill that my mother had often gone up to together with my dad when they were kids. As a matter of fact, they met as toddlers...and according to my Grandma Fiona, everyone knew that they were destined to be together."
"It was an old-fashioned love story; it was said that where one was, the other was usually soon to follow. And they did that throughout their lives up to and including the final act of their lives." If one went somewhere, the other usually ended up following. My mother loved my father deeply and without reservation.
That hill in Sunset Valley where they used to go so many times before became special not just for their childhood memories, but because it was one afternoon about twelve years later that my father got down on one knee and proposed to my mother to start them on their road together.
Mom told me that the happiest day of her life was the day she got married to the man that she loved more than life itself. And looking back on their wedding photos, I can truly say that they were overjoyed to know that they would embark on their journey together.
Make no mistake, married life was not an easy road; strewn with potholes and bumps. But the most important thing was that they met life's challenges together, hand in hand, against all comers.
To any and all opposition; they held a united front: because they were a couple and that's what couples do. And that's what they did. In fact, they gave us a sterling example of how to be a married couple. And that was the template that I drew upon when I married Fumiko. And my brother drew upon it when he married Greta as did our sisters when they married their respective husbands. My father was a strict man, brought up in the Japanese tradition. by his late mother and father. He insisted that we get our homework done before doing anything, up to and including eating...OK...maybe that isn't entirely true, but he certainly didn't hesitate to let you know if you'd been slacking off. But he was strict with our best interests in mind. And I truly appreciate why he was strict with me now that I'm raising my own son, because now I know exactly what to look for because he was able to see through walls with me - and you're doing your homework tonight, son! You know it's due tomorrow." I'm sure my brother and sisters agree with me.
"I want to remember my mother and my father as they were, vibrant, full of life, full of love for each other - not the last picture that I have in my mind's eye when Detective Constable Langerak came to the door...and...told...me...that my father...and mother...were dead and that I had to go identify them at the morgue; that any autopsy finding that they had were going to be a part of an on-going case. I can still remember the devastation that I felt when my brother and I went down, hoping against hope, that they were mistaken. But they weren't. Constable Langerak and Constable Bunch were my rocks that day. They'd gone to school with my dad and my mom and they knew just how much it hurt. And they were there for my brother and me as we digested the fact that we were now on our own - Thank you, Parker...thank you, Ethan, and thank you, Miraj."
"Thank you for coming...to celebrate the life of my mother and my father. As I go forward, I'm going to take the time to realize that life is finite; to take that little extra time with my son and wife and hold them close to my heart. Whereever you are, Mom and Dad, I love you, I miss you dearly...and I'll see you again some day."
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