It is with complete shock, disbelief, and overwhelming sadness that we suddenly lost my dad, Brad Hale, this Monday, November 13th. He passed away just three days shy of his 59th birthday.
His presents are wrapped, and he already bought our tickets to see the Zoo Lights. We had cards.
I even bought the ingredients to make his favorite banana cake after I learned this year that his mom used to make it for him every year for his birthday. Since his mom passed away this year I found her recipe and thought I would bring back the tradition.
And now we won’t be able to give any of it to him. But I know deep down he knew we would have had a grand celebration. We always make birthdays a big thing in our family. He always did and I loved how special that made me feel so much that now I do too.
Words cannot describe how close I was with my dad and how incredibly unfair it is for us to lose him so soon. He was always my biggest supporter and fan. He always told me how proud he was of me. Even his last Facebook post was sharing about my small business.
Growing up anywhere he went I wanted to tag along too and we were ALWAYS roller coaster riding partners since I was tall enough to ride. We had a dream when I was a kid of riding every single roller coaster in the US. Ha.
We always laughed about how similar our personalities were but it’s true. And it is something I am proud of.
Anyone who knew him knew he gave 110% in EVERYTHING he did. He was extremely generous, and supportive, and would drop whatever he was doing to help anyone in need. And you could just feel how much he loved his family and all of his friends. He always made an effort to stay in touch and to check in on you. And he truly cared what was going on in your world.
The close bond he had with my kids made me so happy but it was cut way too short and that makes me feel angry that he was taken from their lives.
It was an amazing gift to have him as their “Bud” and I will cherish all the time we got to spend together living so close. But I still feel so very cheated because we had so much more planned to experience together.
🩷 Courtney
