Eulogy.

I gave the eulogy for my father last Friday. One of the ushers from the funeral service asked for a copy of the eulogy, which I take it to be kind of good review.

Since my speeches tend to be based on an outline, I've reconstructed it here as best I could.
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Thank you Father Blessing for your words of counsel. Father Blessing is one of the wise, good and holy priest here at St. Anthony's who ministers to the people of St. Anthony's

You're probably wondering why I called you here today.

Well, that's my favorite line and I'm going to use it when I can.

We're here in to remember my father and what my father would have wanted to do most if he were here would be to thank those who have helped his family over the last several weeks.

So, on behalf of my father, I want to thank Paul Perez who has been a staff of support for my mother these last several weeks. Paul is a neighbor of my folks and has shown what it means to be a neighbor.

I also want to thank our firends Rick and Nancy Quan who were there with father at the end.

Also, Tim Nolt and Rick Shupe and anyone else who visited him.

And Eugne Krebs who gave my mother an angel outside just now. What a wonderful gesture of support that was.

My brother David who put together the video showing the inconceivable - that our parents were once younger than we are now.

My daughter Morgan who has put together a wonderful video of my father. you can find it on my blog. Just go to Peterseanesq.blogspot.com or google my name. I am now the most famous "Peter Sean Bradley" in the world.

My daughters Deirdra and Meredith who have shown such courage this week.

And my Mom who has shown strength in facing her new life.

Thank you all for being here.

My dad would have said all of that because he believed that we can elicit the good from people by looking for the good in people. Dad was always able to find the good in people. He always counseled charity and patience. And, girls, that was true even though he was a scourge of waiters and waitresses who wanted to slough off their work. But that's only right because you're paying them for service.

My father was a romantic pragmatic or a pragmatic romantic. You’d have to be to have led the life he led.

He was born in born in Brooklyn in 1927. The pictures we saw showed him looking like a character out of the Little Rascals. The pictures of him as a teen showed a tough kid...he looked like he could have taken all of us on at 15.

He joined the Navy at 16 and dropped his accent like a live hand-grenade. That must have been a deliberate decision on his part. No one loses an accent so completely without effort, but he would never admit it.

My dad tried to enlist at 15 but they sent him back because he needed his parents’ permission. So, his parents made a deal with him – they’d sign the permission if he graduated high school. So, he challenged courses and got out at 16 and went into the Navy at 16 in 1944 or 1945.

I remember when I was 17 or 18 going out on appliance repair calls and some person called in to complain about sending a “kid” out – he loudly – loud was a feature of Dad – he had the flight deck voice – shouting over planes – he loudly told them basically so what and did they know what he was doing at that age.

That was the way it was with my dad. He was always ahead of us, setting the bar just far enough out there to make it unlikely for us to ever outdo him at anything. I went through college in three years, which is pretty good. My dad went through college in two to two and a half after he retired from the navy by challenging courses, and then he went on to get a Masters.

And what was he doing in the Navy?

Consider this -

He was on a naval ship that was one of the first American naval ships to enter the Persian Gulf since Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet in 1907. Today, we know only too much about the Persian Gulf

He ran the shore patrol between Casablanca and Port Leote (Lyaute) – Casablanca for heaven’s sake – Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Come with me to the Casbah

He took part in the Berlin Airlift where he picked up enough German to remain conversant with me when I was in 5th year High School German

He was in Vietnam where he saw firefights between American Grunts and Vietcong in the rice paddy opposite the Hotel where he was staying

I recall him one time when we were drinking Tsingtoa beer mentiong that he had heard the shelling from Communist guns in hills around Tsingtao. He was one of the last Americans out of China.

You listen to that list and it sounds like an "Indiana Jones" life.

A romantic life.

But he was also a pragmatist.

Prudence is the virtue on which all other virtues rest and prudence is nothing more than realizing what is true and what is not and my dad had that in spades

Rules were not to be slavishly followed for their own sake, but the important thing was the objective that the rules aimed for.

A case in point – Dad was often appointed shore patrol officer because he was a mustang lieutenant. "Mustang" lieutenants are those enlisted men who make the big social transition from the enlisted ranks to the officer class. As a mustang the captain figured that he knew enlisted men and he knew how ot get things done.

One time in port, my dad realized that the captain’s jeeps tires were going bald. The admiral was in port and the admiral's jeep had wonderful new tires. My dad figured that his ship was leaving and the admiral could get tires anywhere so he figured he would reallocate resources in a more efficient manner - he left the admiral's jeep on chocks with no tires.

He also had a pragmatic approach to other things learned from practical experience. Dad gave up gambling when he was stationed in Nova Scotia. There was not much to do in Nova Scotia but gamble and drink, and one time he had an "unbeatable" hand, so he went all in – the unbeatable hand was beaten. He learned the valuable lesson that gambling is for suckers

Dad gave up smoking in the ‘60s. My job was to run for smokes while he was working on his corvair. One time he told me that was the last pack he would smoke. I was raised on Dick Van Dyke where the image of people going through DTs from giving up cigarettes was considered high comedy. I imagined similar scenes of comedy gold.

Nope, he just quit. He made a decision and just quit.

Dad retired in Lemoore, came to Fresno and got a college degree by challenging classes, then got a Masters. His rule was always if you can get a piece of paper grab it while you can.

Went to work at Fresno County Office of Education – and started a union there – which was the right thing to do – because there is no more corrupt form of government than a school district.

Can I have an amen, Mr. Nolt?

He retired and then spent his retirement years bowling, Celtic Cultural Society and raising my kids.

My dad was proud of being Irish. He passed that pride on to his grandchildren, who are 100% Irish, which is kind of weird given that their mother is 100% Swedish.

Think Irish, be Irish.

It was quite a life and it’s not over yet.

First, in the life of each one of us going forward who carry some memory or lesson of him. One thing that he taught us was to have more patience and charity with each other. You all can decide how to apply that lesson any way you want to, but I think that the key lessons is that [Looking sternly at my daughters] you girls need to be more patient with each other.

But secondly and more importantly We will see him again.
Every Sunday we express our belief in the Resurrection.

What does that mean?

That means we will see him again, and when we do, he will be 30 years old, all the infirmities of life will be wiped away, he will be seeing out of both eyes, he will have thrown away his canes.

He will be strong and laughing.

And, most important, he will be filled with joy when he sees us.

Let us all remember him that way.

Thank you for being here today.

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If anyone needs to give a eulogy, check out this site for tips on writing a eulogy. It seems to offer a lot of good nuts and bolts on how to give a eulogy.

After looking at the tips they provided, I figured that a eulogy has three parts: (a) Bringing the audience into the speech, (b) talking about my father, and (c) offering some hope as a send-off.

At least, that's the model I followed.