April 23, 2008: I have been catching up with work; working on the house; and saying lots of prayers for my aunt who has been very ill; but will add some of my recent pictures in links in the Photo Gallery.

April 15, 2008: I just returned from a long planned, prepaid trip to Lake Tahoe with Kim. I did not have my Web tools to publish there, so I still have some pictures to add, from my trip to Pittsburgh, and now from my trip to Tahoe too (coming once I get settled back in -- pictures take a bit more time).

I have been talking with loved ones in Pittsburgh, and hear that about 150 people attended my father's service. It is heartwarming to know that he touched so many lives in good ways. I felt a tinge of regret that I was not there, but so much more I was happy that I had managed to spend some time before he passed.

We hugged, and prayed, and sang praises to God while I was there, in our minds knowing his time was short, and in our hearts hoping it would be short to release him from his suffering. By Sunday, his lucid time was disappearing, he was not eating, and he was not drinking, as he slipped ever deeper into a restless, drug induced delirium. Still, even though he could not speak, one could sense that he was listening, that he was with us, whether it be a muted sound, or a squeeze of his hand. By Monday morning, he finally shook the fear of sleeping that had kept him in that lost, anxious time and space between awake and asleep .. and he slept a bit. By Monday afternoon, not having been able to take his regular medications - including for his congestive heart failure, we could hear him struggling to breath, as water built on his lungs. One could not help but shed tears.

My return trip had been planned for Monday afternoon, there was nothing more I could do, and so I left him in the good care of my brother, and I embarked on my long trip home. Somewhere flying above Denver, I was overwhelmed with a sensation that my father was passing, like the rush of a lifetime of feelings, yet as if new, all at once, all mixed up, taking me for a short moment as I drifted in wonderment at the sensation. When I landed on my way home, and turned my phone on, I had a voice mail confirming what I had felt, that Harry Turton had relinquished his life of suffering, trading it in for eternity in heaven.

There are probably some who would question, Harry Turton in heaven? Of those who knew him as a young terror, who on at least one drunken driving occasion turned another man into a paraplegic (and probably accumulated a list of much worse), the thought that he could enter heaven might have seemed not only impossible, but unfair. But, Jesus died for our sins, and rose on the third day that we might all be forgiven, and have life everlasting. Harry believed in Jesus; he believed in the resurrection. Still, despite Jesus forgiving him, I believe that he had a hard time forgiving himself. He had a hard time accepting Jesus' gift, and he punished himself - at least to very near the end. I never heard my father apologize to any of those he had hurt (though he may have), I believe because he did not feel he had any right to ask. He did tell me once (implied), that he wished things could have been different, to which I responded, "I would not change the life that God has given to me, for there is a purpose to all things." I hope, and believe, that he understood Jesus' forgiveness before he died. I hope, and pray, that those who he had hurt can similarly find forgiveness in their hearts too, for their own well being. Perhaps they can take some solace that Harry Turton paid a heavy price throughout his life, especially at its end, for his bad choices early on, and they can in turn move on with their lives.

Indeed, the things I admired most about my father, about Harry Turton, were how he turned around his terrible youth, how he kept his addiction at bay; and how in the end, he helped others -- especially since without him, some of those others might not have had anyone else to help them. I had the good fortune to meet some of those lives that Harry touched, and even if time and circumstance don't ever bring us together again in this lifetime, I am sure they will be there in heaven. Isn't that the great commission of the bible?

If you would like to read Harry's obituary, and sign the guest book, please go to --> Obituary For Harry Turton

While I was visiting, I picked up some of Harry's writing, in which I find sarcasm, humor, creativity, and pain, among other things. I typed it all into a document (converted to Adobe PDF) to share, trying to keep much of the original formatting, grammar, spelling, and such to give color to who he was --> The Fat Man From Cooksburg.pdf

I will add some more, along with pictures soon.