No matter what age we are when we lose our parents, we are always children in our grief. Letting go is a swirling confusion of acceptance, relief any suffering is over, and overwhelming sadness that such an important part of ourselves is missing, no longer accessible. This holds true for our beloved father, Paul McCarthy Jr. And even though his passing was imminent, losing him brought a crushing emptiness. Dad was the family patriarch in every sense of the word.
He got that from his parents, most especially his mother Gretchen, who was the very essence of family loyalty, generosity, and humor.
Dad was definitely our center. He was wise, straightforward, smart as hell, and extraordinarily quick-witted and funny. He was also very handsome, accomplished, and compassionate.
Dad was born in Michigan, but raised in Davenport. He was very close to his only younger sister, Susie Jennings, and her husband Lee was the brother he never had. They had a lifetime of fun and camaraderie together.
The singular, defining characteristics of Dad were his spectacular sense of humor and the constant laughter it generated when in his company. There were always stories full of hilarity and creative embellishment. Those tales and their telling are some of our best family memories. Dad attended Northwestern University, where he met our mother, Nancy Johnson who was from Rock Island , and married her in Both our parents Nancy 19 and Paul 21 were barely adults when they married and had four of their own children in six years.
