Of all the things we can say, no words or combination of words will ever measure up to describing the man, husband, Dad, and Grandpa you were and always will be. Our attempts will fall woefully short of the genuineness you embodied. But we'll try. Your small quirks and antics came from a place of pure love. You put everybody else's needs and wants before your own. None of us can recall a time you went out and shopped for yourself. It was always an uphill fight to get you to wear new clothes you were gifted. You worked until your fingers bled and wrapped them up to go in again the next day. You never winced or complained about the aches you felt or how tired you were. You were our Invincible One, the Ultimate Provider, the wind in our sails when we were down, and the Dad everyone wanted and aspired to be. You were the stuff legends wished they were made of, the ruggedness mountains grow, imperfectly perfect, goofy, stern yet tender, our "Paterfamilias", and the much loved "PoPo" to all your grandchildren.

We'll always look for you in all your familiar places—the backyard,

the front yard, the Pulgas on Thursday mornings, the shopping centers on Saturdays, and when we visit home, we'll look and wait for the rattle of your car's motor to put-put-put and stop under the shade of the Arizona Ash to signify you're home. We'll look.

But you won't be there.

We won't hear your car's comforting clunk.

We won't see you in the shopping crowds.

Or, by chance, run into you at Taurino's, your favorite breakfast taco spot.

All we'll find in those places are reminders you were once there, once here with us.

Instead, your unexpected passing will force us to search and find you in places we've forgotten or refused to look. Some of us will peer into our hearts for the first time in decades and that's where we will find you. Some of us will look, deeper still, into our spirit and other unnamed places inside of us and that's where we will find you.

Y'know the places. The parts of us we've closed off because of past hurts, troubled times, or just plain refused to remember existed. The places you always told us were beautiful and that we needed to give a second chance.

You'll be there, waiting for us to unlock those closed doors to finally acknowledge what you've always said was there, Happiness and Love.

You'll be there because you gave us pieces of yourself to help heal and close the wounds the world sliced wide open. We didn't want to hear it at the time or even believe it. But it was true. What can I say? Rodriguez Pride knows no bounds. And when all of this has settled, when we seek you out in the Great Beyond, you'll be so close, we'll feel silly to have ever thought you left us behind. And a smirk will wiggle out, perhaps a tear or two will drop, and then, a flood of love and warmth will overtake the sorrow felt. It's what you would have wanted. It's what you have always tried to teach us, but we never understood until now. Your final lesson, your final sage advice. The reason you hugged us long and tight is obvious now. I get it. We get it. I can't promise we'll ever dry out, but we'll try.