My brothers and I know how fortunate we are to have such a great father - someone who is generous, self-less, thoughtful and kind, with an outstanding sense of humor that he carried with him throughout his whole life. Additionally, it brings me such a feeling a pride when I meet Dad's friends who tell me that Roger is one of their favorite people of all time, or clients who are so grateful for the joy that Dad has brought to them by creating beauty in their homes, or relatives who remind me that Dad has always put family first. Speaking of pride, Dad was someone who took such pride in his work, as anyone who's seen the results of any of his many construction projects over the years, would agree. Dad enjoyed working with his hands and designing creative home improvements that I believe were works of art. And most importantly he made sure to have while fun while he did it. Dad has taught me a lot, particularly in the past two years during which we spent most of our time together. One of the most important things I learned from him was to make sure I'm having enough fun. He also encouraged me to relax and take my time so I can enjoy life more. In other words, after 9 years of being so intensely focused on a job, Dad helped me to get my priorities straight. Family is the most important thing to Dad as evidenced by the sign that hangs in his backyard, Sempre Famiglia, His annual 4th of July party was his opportunity to bring together the family and the friends he considered family to his home for an all out celebration. Did you know he had a Costco membership just so he could shop there one time a year for the party? I won't go into the details about the time Dad sprinted across the back lawn through to the neighbors property and climbed up the side of the house to put a fire out with his bare hands that had been started by some fireworks that had somehow landed on the roof. But this does lead me to discuss Dad's attribute of strength. I tell everyone my Dad is the strongest guy I've ever known. He survived Vietnam when he was in his 20's. He beat his diagnosis of Acute Myloid Leukemia two years ago by entering a clinical trial and ending up being the most successful on the study by going into the deepest molecular remission of any patient. Then when he got hit with this new unrelated cancer diagnosis 2 months ago he said to me, "I kind of want to see if I can kick this in the butt too - I'm going to fight". I have been by his side during this battle and I have seen Dad endure pain like no one I've ever known. As recently as a week ago, he asked Matt and me if he had a shot at making it 2 more months so he could see the birth of his first grandchild. Matt and I told him if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be him and that we would never count him out. He never gave up but the cancer was just way too widespread and advanced for him to win this war that he had suffered through. At 3am on Friday, June 17th, heaven got real lucky when Dad left this world at 70 years young and was added to the list of awesome angels that we have up there now. While we will all be sad to lose Dad because as I told him, "A thousand years of fun times with you would never be enough", at the same time I also feel a great comfort. I know that Dad is now able to literally watch over me always. Dad was always worrying about me whether I was traveling to some remote part of the world or just going on a run down to Centerport Beach. Even when he was up late at night with pain in the hospital he would ask me first, "How are you doing? Are you sleeping okay in that sleeper chair?" That's the kind of self-less guy he was. I felt that he would protect me and take care of any problem because he always did. Now I know I can walk, run, or trek confidently on this earth because he's up there watching out for me always. We are all blessed to have known Roger during his time here. He's touched all of us in a unique way. I feel like I'm the luckiest of all because I'm the only girl in the world that gets to call him Dad. So on this Father's Day weekend I hope you will all keep Dad close in your hearts as I am.