My Dad, My Instructor

Lawrence Latimer was one of the best instructors and aviation mentors out there. He earned his Wright Brothers award, and taught so many countless pilots. We did a little research and all the crops duster pilots he taught, none have been involved in a fatal accident. that's kind of a record in itself. He served in Vietnam 101st airborne 1966-1967. He learned to fly helicopters while in the Army.
My dad was my first flight instructor, my cheerleader just as much as he rarely ever said if was proud of me or how much he cared, and he with mom kept raising the bar so I could never touch it and while I watched others become more successful in life because the bar for them stayed in place, and I'm still learning how to accept myself as good enough. But when we flew he was both the dad I needed and the flight instructor who knew how to elevate my skills. His life passion was flying and aviation everything else just a distraction from it.
I didn't include the missing man formation in this edit. maybe I'll include in a future one.
He didn't want a funeral, but we decided on a memorial after he passed. My mother put most of the memorial together. I ultimately had chosen a date due to my daughters wedding in October, but ironically the memorial was on her birthday. that's a family tradition apparently. I knew she had ordered like a 100 photos that the guests would be able to take with them. I had seen some but I didn't go thru all of them of course. But I was shook to my core when I not only didn't see one photo with me and him in those pictures, but on the table with the family photos I was not there.(I am an only child)
My daughter did go searching thru an office to find a photo of me to place among the photos but was not able to place on the memorial table. I wanted to speak at the service, but I'm glad I didn't, I would have made a scene. No one else noticed I was missing either.
I have since gone extremely minimal contact with my mother because of everything else after and before. I'm still angry at dad for being that buffer and teaching me that her disrespect and was love and in turn I was teaching my kids the same thing. So while I miss having him as my instructor and mentor, I am glad he is no longer the "Foggles" of how I see what she says and does to me and my family.
She has her niece and nephews as well as the Brazilian family which were the golden children anyways.