My Eulogy for My Father Arnis Kaulins

This eulogy is divided into three parts:  gratitude, acknowledgement and request.  It takes the form of a prayer.

I wish to express my gratitude to my father Arnis Kaulins.

Thank you Dad for giving Benita, Ron and me life.
Thank you Dad for raising us.
Thank you Dad for all those Sunday Drives and the journey that our childhoods were.
Thank you Dad for taking us to all our extracirricular activities.
Thank you Dad for the all the care packages sent to us whether we were in Sasktachewan or B.C. or China.  It is hard to find deordarent in China.Let me tell you it was certainly appreciated.
Thank you Dad for never forgetting our birthdays.
Thank you Dad for the camping trips and the cross-country train rides and drives.
Thank you Dad for all the cheesy gifts.  Oh!  How I going to miss those combination screwdrivers and can openers.  I will never ever again be able to look at one and not think of you.
Thank you for our first bikes and cars.
Thank you for never ever giving up on us and for making us who we are.
And finally, thank you for being with Mom all these years.

We, your children, acknowledge that we all separated in your later years. The birds fled the nest you had built.  We really wanted the joys of our childhoods to return.  So when we mourn, the child in us mourns the passing of the Arnis who was our Super Dad.

And I will end this eulogy with a few requests.   Let's honour Arnis by remembering good-old Arnie, That he spelt kaulins with a "K," that he was a great gardener, that he came from a small country Latvia, that he served in the armed forces of this great country of Canada, and that a fulfilling life is not one in which we take but one in which we give our time to others.