W5GA
09-16-2012, 06:38 PM
Dad passed at about 11:00 this morning, not as he wished, but we don't get to make those choices. He wanted to go in his sleep, unfortunately his sleep was morphine induced in his last days. The Hospice nurse thinks his prostate cancer had metastized into bone cancer.
Charles Newton Weller, aged 90 and a few days.
Dad grew up in western New York, a little burg called Dunkirk not far from the lake. He had a life long passion for photography, but was never able to make a living at it, so he found employment as a pressman working for various newspapers in New York, Arizona and California. He retired from the Fresno Bee 25 years ago, and spent many of the remaining years indulging his other passion, which was fishing.
He taught me how to fish for salmon on the Sacramento river in the mid '90's. We had many a fine day on the river with the sun shining and lots of teasing to go around. My best effort was a 46 pounder, which he had a tremendous laugh over, because I snagged it by the tail. I believe his all time record was over 50 pounds. They all tasted great, regardless...especially after smoking!
He also enjoyed doing photo restorations for people. He would take old photos that had been damaged over time by mishandling, and make them look new again. He never charged for doing this, taking his payment in smiles when people saw the restored piece. They were always thrilled when some family heirloom with fold lines, water damage etc. was brought back to life, and he took great joy is seeing the looks on their faces. He would spend days and days getting them to look just like new. It was really sad when he realized that as the Alzheimer's progressed that he couldn't do it anymore, as he couldn't remember how to use the software any longer. We have over 8000 photos to go through, and a couple thousand slides. That's a LOT of family history!
After his wife passed 10 years ago, he had another lady friend, and they had a grand time going here and there. They both loved to dance, and had many a fine evening doing so.
Dad was an absolute gem of a man, with never a bad word to say about anybody.
RIP - you will be sorely missed.
Charles Newton Weller, aged 90 and a few days.
Dad grew up in western New York, a little burg called Dunkirk not far from the lake. He had a life long passion for photography, but was never able to make a living at it, so he found employment as a pressman working for various newspapers in New York, Arizona and California. He retired from the Fresno Bee 25 years ago, and spent many of the remaining years indulging his other passion, which was fishing.
He taught me how to fish for salmon on the Sacramento river in the mid '90's. We had many a fine day on the river with the sun shining and lots of teasing to go around. My best effort was a 46 pounder, which he had a tremendous laugh over, because I snagged it by the tail. I believe his all time record was over 50 pounds. They all tasted great, regardless...especially after smoking!
He also enjoyed doing photo restorations for people. He would take old photos that had been damaged over time by mishandling, and make them look new again. He never charged for doing this, taking his payment in smiles when people saw the restored piece. They were always thrilled when some family heirloom with fold lines, water damage etc. was brought back to life, and he took great joy is seeing the looks on their faces. He would spend days and days getting them to look just like new. It was really sad when he realized that as the Alzheimer's progressed that he couldn't do it anymore, as he couldn't remember how to use the software any longer. We have over 8000 photos to go through, and a couple thousand slides. That's a LOT of family history!
After his wife passed 10 years ago, he had another lady friend, and they had a grand time going here and there. They both loved to dance, and had many a fine evening doing so.
Dad was an absolute gem of a man, with never a bad word to say about anybody.
RIP - you will be sorely missed.