Looking To the Sky with My Dad, John Kinsella By Pat Kinsella Herdeg

John Joseph Kinsella died on Thursday night, October 25^th, 2018. He had just turned 92 years old the week before and enjoyed a fun-filled birthday dinner.

The week in between his birthday and when he left us, Mom and most of us kids and grandkids spent time in the hospital with Dad, filling his room with many wonderful stories, jokes, tears, hugs and laughter; phone calls and emails kept the rest of the family connected to Dad.  Pops was surrounded by a warm circle of family and love, and he knew it.

It was a difficult week after he died, but the calling hours and the funeral Mass and then the Irish wake and burial in Waterloo were all very moving and emotional. So many of his friends and family came out one last time to celebrate his rich life so well lived.

I wanted to do something different for this blog. Here is a bit of Dad below—his ‘consolations’ or important pieces of himself:

A few years ago, Dad emailed to my sister Beth about a 15^th century Irish poet who gathered his beloved objects--his consolations, to him. Then Dad questions, what would HIS consolations be?

Here is my 21st century list:

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 I have it in our library and still read it occasionally

Casey at the Bat

 I don’t actually have a copy but I don’t need one. I’m like the ancient Druids—I have memorized it. I will have it forever.

My brass telescope

 It gave me my most thrilling boyhood memories. Using it, I saw the four moons of Jupiter and the craters on the moon.

Stamp Album

 In addition to the album are packets of 1900 era US stamps I “rescued” from trunks in the attics of barns in my old neighborhood and a kit for making watermarks on stamps visible. 

Windup Record Player

 I spent untold pleasant hours listening to records on this player at 10 Maynard Street.

Daisy BB gun

 It taught me the pleasure of hunting and thanks to my older brother, Dick, I learned to use it with caution so as not to harm anyone with it.

Stones

 Black stone from the beach at Rathcor, Co. Louth, Ireland

 Rock from the Mississippi River near St. Louis, MO

 Rock from Petrified Forest, Arizona

 Marble from Tadlock Quarry, Ontario, Canada

 Mica from Otty Lake, Canada

My Father’s Hammer

 Special hammer with magnetic tip he used when he worked on upholstery

Baseball Glove

 Outfielder’s glove I used when I played on the Waterloo Baseball team

Green Skis

 Handmade by my Dad. Bob, Mary and I used them for several years on the fabulously high Bunker Hill near Waterloo. They became known as “The Fastest skis on Bunker Hill.”

Black Mathematics Formula Book

 Used at the Univ of Texas, it contained every formula needed for algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus.

Picture taken at Dermot MacMurrough’s grave in Ferns, Ireland

 Taken during the trip of “The Traveling Angels.”

Dermot's Grave in Ferns, Ireland--April 1982

Dad, Beth, Dan, Pat and Florence

 Confirmation Slip from Sage Rutty of the purchase of 2 shares of Haloid stock

 Eight years later this was sold and used to purchase the Old cottage on Otty Lake

Letter from Joseph Wilson, CEO of Xerox Corporation

 Announced he had awarded me 200 shares of stock options of Xerox stock. Money from the sale of this stock was used to put all you girls and boys through college. 

 

Pops, so many memories of you! I remember one dark summer night long ago at Otty Lake. You and I went outside and just looked up as you pointed out all the constellations we could see—the Milky Way, Cassiopeia, the Pleiades… . How I loved Orion as he stretched across the sky after that. You showed me the Little Dipper and how to find the North Star. You said to me ‘Patty, you can never be lost if you look to the stars to guide you; just look up. Find your way.’

I am feeling pretty lost right about now, Dad, but I hear you-- I will go out into the chilly night and look up to the stars. I know you will be right there with me, holding me close and pointing out the clusters and galaxies I cannot quite see yet.