Struggling Daddy V

Eric Klinenberg,professor of geography stated: " the loss of human life in hot spells in summer exceeds that caused by all other weather events combined, including lightning, rain, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes."

Kelli Miller of The Weather Channel wrote July 9, 1999: "Seventy-one people have died from the heat wave that suffocated the eastern United States earlier this week. The highest number of deaths occurred in Philadelphia..."

At the time I remember them saying the heat index was 107 degrees. I thought it ironic that eleven years later a heatwave is upon us again. Last night at 9:00 PM it was 96 degrees out. Today, exactly eleven years after my fathers death due to the heatwave, the tempature is expected to be 99 degrees, well over 100 degrees with the heat index.

The Poem for the day by my Dad:

Help Me

It's not a matter of simple decision-
no adding, subtracting or long division.
There's books in the boxes and books on the shelf
and not one can help me to help myself.
I sense there's a word for the hell I feel
but it eludes me like total peace.
My soul has a Savior but even so
my brain is so jagged i can't even know.

I feel like I'm being drawn and quartered.
I feel like I'm drowning in a storm at sea.
I feel like a traitor to my own heart.
My old Savior won't you save me from me? -Thomas Razonski

I thought this a proper last poem for this series. Do not be sad. There is no more reason to grieve. By reading this poem, I realized what a struggle my father's life truly was. I'm sure death was a struggle as well, dying from heat is not a peaceful death. So why not be sad on this day, July 7, 2010 eleven years exactly to the day? A mere forty-nine years after his birth? The Lord brought him home. He doesn't have to fight the demons of schizophrenia any longer. He can finally rest his weary head in the lap of our Lord and rejoice and be whole again.

So don't be sad, but please learn something from his poems and his death. Learn that life is too short and can be gone in the blink of an eye. Learn that there is always something more than meets the eye when you meet someone.

Rest In Peace Forever More Dad

Thomas Razonski-passed through this world July 7, 1999.

http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3335&method=full
http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/pennsylvania/-12765420/
http://www.reference.com/browse/heat+wav