Napa

            Back from Napa, where Mom and I went for so many years to take David out to lunch.  We did that for 30 years, and since then, almost 15 have transpired.  Napa has changed a lot.  One change is that there’s a college right across the street from Napa State Hospital.

            Today Javier and I went to Napa for a memorial service for his son-in-law at the Silverado Country Club, where David Eske used to play golf.  The tributes really gave me a feeling for who David was and how much people admired him for his passion,

                Journey, Javier’s granddaughter, spoke first, but we missed her talk because we arrived late (something not typical of Javier) after stopping for Arturo and then getting lost with no “Recalculate” GPS help.  But we heard that she had said she’d never heard her mother cry so hard.    We heard all the other scheduled talks—by their son Blake, sister Eileen Eske, Miguel Torino, and others.  Javier also gave a really sweet, short tribute.  Javier’s daughter Patri held up really well, and I think it helped that all the talks were very warm and heart-felt but also humorous.  For example, someone made reference to David’s being an organ donor and commented, “Imagine how wonderful it would be to have David’s heart.  His liver, not so much.”  There were lots of allusions to his like a glass of wine—and a “good” wine, not like the kind they offered him before he educated them. 

                A favorite quote of his was “Your attitude determines your altitude.” 

                Dave’s sister referred to Patri as “his beautiful wife inside and out” and there were a lot of mentions of how much he loved people in his family, which speakers mentioned by name. 

            I found out that Dave got into the retail business right out of high school and had managerial positions before he was 21 at Target, Kohl. And J.C. Penney’s.    Target sent a floral arrangements, and five wineries donated wine for the occasion. 

                Miguel commented that Dave really hadn’t taken any short cuts but succeeded through sheer hard work and a passion for what he was doing, energy and focus.

                About three people said, “I am who I am today because of David,” and I was so glad there was no Eddie Fisher there to say what he said when Debbie Reynolds commented that Scouts had made her the person she was. “The most domineering woman I ever met.”  (This is according to Time Magazine.)  But if only people realized how vulnerable they’re making themselves when they so innocently extol “the person I am today.”

                 Someone said that just as David was being taken off the life-support machines, everyone in the family put their hands on him so he could feel that they were there and he wasn’t dying alone.