Dad, Lies, Lies and exaggerations?...

"There goes the old man"I said, as the Hearse went past.We were waiting at the Crematorium,when Tashy and i went to the funeral,,i felt like vomiting when we first in the church, and cried through most of the service...he's gone. It was strange to hear about his life and accomplishments,it was strange to see Him through others eyes,It was strange to hear my Half brother Dan talk about him,in the tribute, and to see how much more easy going he was with Dan and his friends... Its going to be strange when his book is published on the 7 January.Its not so strange to remember the good things,which is difficult because a lot of them are tainted by other peoples bad opinions of him,My Parents had a very nasty divorce,we were expected to take sides,My Brother Mike died at the same time, and all the emotions were all mixed up, neither of them came out of it well, My Mum felt that we were betraying her by having contact with Dad, and even said stuff like "if your Dad really cared about you he would pick you up from the House"(,he didn't want to engage with her)He was the bad one in her eyes for leaving a marriage, which was a train wreck, and to be fair he did meet someone else fairly soon.Mum also talked about Dad with a completely different attitude , before she had always backed him up,now he was Satan!!, which i guess was understandable,as he had left her, Marriage was for life in their age group. It was strange to hear people with such good opinions, good relationships, with him.I have had to totally reassess, and remember why we fell out for so many years...It's not pleasant going back to something i have always felt guilty about, but good to know it wasn't all my fault.He decided he didn't want to be part of my kids life, which upset me a lot at the time, because they were curious about him...It's hard to think about instances, things that i remember about him, because we were a family and i cant separate memories, of both my parents together.Once Dad took me to give me a driving lesson, and said i would be a good driver one day, total parental exaggeration!! I remember Caravan holidays,our dog fighting with another dog, and their jaws getting locked together , as terriers do,and the other owner pouring a bucket of water over them, Dad was being charming as always, always laughing and trying to make us all laugh.I remember the way he would sing to him self when he went to answer the door, and how hospitable he was,"Pom pom pom", on the way to the door.We met up with some old friends from Kenya,Dad was laughing and hugging the other Guy!!! Strange!.When he was on Honeymoon and i had a sickness bug,he held my hair, and emptied the vomit, this amazed me at the time, because i don't remember him doing any of this before, my Mum was a nurse so she took care of us.Neither of my parents were physically affectionate, touchy feely type of people.