Richard James Donovan

Richard \"Dick\" Donovan passed away on September 18, 2005. He was 68.

In Memory of Richard James Donovan
August 1, 1937-September 18, 2005
What can I say about my Dad. He made a lot of choices in his life that I didn\'t understand.
I can\'t say we were close. I wish I could. When I was little we were closer. As I got
older, he lavished a lot of attention on my Mom, while I felt unloved much of the time. My father
drank, and didn\'t deal with things. I don\'t judge him for any of this now, it\'s
just a fact. After my mother died, he didn\'t want to be here anymore, and subsequently spent
16 years trying to drink and smoke himself to death. A process I tried to battle for a while, but
then eventually gave up. On September 18th of 2005, he succeeded, but due to a choice of his own,
he had not spoken to me for several years before that, and so I did not find out about his passing
until nearly the end of October 2005, when I did a web search on the Social Security Death Index.
We didn\'t get to make amends or to say goodbye, but his spirit has visited me since he\'s
been gone, and things seem different with him now. I hope he is happier now than he was the 16
years before he passed.