Parents like booster rockets

I am writing this for Bodhi and Sophia so that they may know more about their father.

If you kids remember anything from this, it's that your father was a good guy. I worked with him for several years and he was always a pleasure to be around. He was kind and compassionate, cleaver and smart, and interested in how things worked. He was fun and had a great sense of humor. Additionally, he brought some great music into the lab, much of it I downloaded and still listen to. Unfortunately, when I left the lab I must have skipped over your mother's favorites.....Glee and probably something from a Disney animated movie ;-)

People seem to pair up in two different ways. Either they seem to be simpatico or complementary. I would say your father and mother were more the complementary type. Clearly their interest and work in science was a shared world. I knew that they were really good friends. Their difference in style, though, blinded me to the depth that your father felt for your mother, that it would amount to him following her to California, getting married, and having two kids who he cared very much about. Your father and mother both seemed very happy.

One of the other things that impressed me about your father was his resilience. Going to graduate school is not easy. There is a lot of pressure and not a lot of support. Experiments don't work and everything seems to take longer than it should. This causes many students to have setbacks and your father had his. But, he delt with it which was way more important than the setback, and truthfully, more important than the PhD. He get's extra credit for that.

One of the other things about graduate school and the academic setting is the endless stream of people who pass through the lab as they move on to bigger and better things. You want to stay in touch after they leave but it usually doesn't happen. I did, however, keep in touch with you father. Not often, but whenever I came across an article that I thought he would be interested in reading I sent it to him and we would text back and forth a bit. Often he'd send kid pictures. I will miss that.

Anyway, parents are like booster rockets that push the payload on it's way. They do what they can until the next stage takes over. Your dad did his part in getting things started for you guys and your mom surely will keep things going. It would have been nice if he could have stayed around longer, but I'm sure that you kids have been given a good start and will do just fine.

Michael Parente

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