08/11/2020
In Memoriam 1940 - 2020
At Icebox Jam, we value and miss our customers very much. It has been very difficult to run our business since March 2020. All of our food shows were cancelled, our supply line was terminated and our facility for manufacturing our jams was closed. In June we were informed that our most profitable and popular show, the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival had filed for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, these popular shows require payment months and even a year in advance. The bankruptcy caused us to lose several thousand dollars we may never recoup.
Recently, Icebox Jam began to slowly recuperate. We were producing jam and we were ready to fully open our online store. Unfortunately, tragedy struck our family suddenly without much warning. My father fell very ill recently and passed away from non Covid-19 complications. I’m sharing this sad news of my father’s passing with my Icebox Jam family because of the special and unexpected signals we received that my father had passed on to the other side peacefully. He wanted to let us know he was well. My mother and father had been married for 59 years and were together as friends for a total of 70 years. An incredible man with an incredible work ethic, my father watched over his family and kept each member safe and happy every day he lived. He was a gentle giant.
On the night my father passed, I was driving home and had just completed a long prayer. At the very moment I ended my prayer a large shooting star streaked across the clear night sky. The star bore a very distinct and beautiful blue green tail. Blue and green were my father’s favorite colors. I had not seen a shooting star since I was a child and on that particular night of my first ever sighting, I was with my father in our backyard.
My father was very protective of my mother and always ensured her safety. In their later years, he never wanted my mother to go into the attic because he was afraid she would lose her balance on the steep attic stairs. The attic is small and contains two lights, one in the front and one in the back. The day after my father passed my mother was determined to go into the attic to retrieve a table leaf for the kitchen table to accommodate extra family members. Suborn, she did not want to wait for assistance. She pulled the attic stairs down, climbed to the top and threw the light switch to on. The lights went on, both bulbs flickered and burned out one after the next making the attic completely dark. My mother was unable to retrieve to table leaf in the dark. This was my father’s way of saying "wait until family arrives".
The following day my sister noticed the large battery operated kitchen clock above the sink had stopped at exactly 4:00 pm. My sister pointed this out to my mother and my mother began to cry. My sister consoled my mother and asked if she was OK. My mother then explained to my sister the significance of what she was missing. My mother and father ate dinner together every day at 4:00 pm. My parents were the ultimate early birds and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together each day.
It was clear my father did not want my mother to worry should anything happen to him. He clearly did not want my mother to be alone. Family had flown in from several states and we comforted my mother until my father was laid to rest on Monday. On Tuesday, tropical storm Isaias struck our region with fury. While my sister was home, she had been sitting in the front area of her home when she began to lose her cell signal. Right after walking to the back of her home to gain better signal strength, a large tree let loose and crashed through the front of her home where she had been standing. She was not injured, but is now forced to live with my mother until her home is repaired. When I arrived at my mother’s on the same day a huge tree branch had broken free and crashed to the grass below. The branch, which must have weighed several hundred pounds, was clearly and visibly deflected downward, by an unknown object. Had the branch not been deflected it would have (and should have) crashed through my parents front porch awning and destroyed the area where my parents sat every night in the summer.
The same storm also caused a few ceiling tiles to fall from my parents drop ceiling in their family room. The entire family was at the house on Tuesday and most of us were outside cleaning up storm debris. My mother, wife, daughter and her boyfriend were inside the family room fixing the tiles when suddenly and without warning the television set turned on to the weather channel. No one was near the remote or the television and there was no reason for the television to just turn on like it did. My mother remembers the television being set to another channel the last time it had been on. My father watched the weather channel for news anytime there was an approaching big storm.
Lastly, my niece visited my father’s grave a few days later. She cleaned the area of storm damaged branches, leaves and flowers. Upon returning home she moved into the kitchen and the stereo turned on by itself without warning. The radio song playing was Brooks and Dunn “Boot Scootin' Boogie". There was no reason for the stereo to turn on by itself. However, my father loved country music and he used to sing the song to my niece for fun after she was born in 1993.
The signs have since faded and only time will help to heel the hole left by my father’s passing. A US Navy Veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Cold War, my father served his country six years, mostly aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain. After discharge, my father settled down in a small New Jersey town working two full time jobs (the night and day shifts) for 38 years in order to support his family. After retiring from one job, he continued to work a single full time job for another 15 years. In his retirement he loved to make furniture in his wood shop, exercise, fish, and dote on his grandchildren. He will be greatly missed by all of us. Love you Pop! Steven
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