My Daddy - Ronald Harlow Kruse

Two years ago today my Dad died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He'd never had any previous problems and it was quite a blow to everyone. I was lucky to be able to talk to him five days before he died because it was my birthday. We had a nice little chat, mostly about nothing, but he told me how proud he was of me and that he loved me. I was pretty close to him and have a lot of good memories of our time together. I've finally gotten to the point where I don't cry every single time I think about him so I thought it would be fun to do a little photo blog tribute to him on the anniversary of his death.

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I was attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah when the Olympics came to Salt Lake City in 2002. Being a poor college student I didn't have the money to go to any of the events but I managed to be able to fly home and my parents and I went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a week and enjoyed the break from school. There is a little shopping center somewhere in Myrtle Beach where they had these animals randomly there. My Dad and his quirkiness decided to jump on this elephant and take a little ride. We couldn't resist the photo opportunity.

In December of 2002 my parents and I were able to drive to Washington D.C. during my winter break and do a little sight seeing. I went there on tour with my choir the year before and it was fun to be able to see everything again. I really like this picture of us in front of the Lincoln Memorial I think it shows how alike we look.

My Dad loved collecting coins. It was one of the fun things we did together when I was a kid. I remember going to the coin show and getting my proof set and a big thing of pennies and looking for the shiniest and oldest ones. When Spencer was just born (August 2005) we lived in Denver and he joined my mother, who was already there. We had nice a visit and we went to the Denver Mint. It was really awesome to see how the coins were made and to learn about the whole process. He bought an uncut sheet of $2 bills while we were there because he collected those too. He always carried one around in his wallet just to say he had one.

In March of 2006 Spencer and I flew to visit my parents. I figured since they'd just come out to see me it was my turn. We again took the opportunity to go to Myrtle Beach, one of our favorite places. While we were there we played a lot of games, went swimming, and had an interesting experience with a Murphy bed click here for video. We were playing careers and my Dad, in another moment of quirkiness decided to try and balance the pieces on the one dot of the dice. I thought it was pretty amazing and he was pretty proud of himself too. He studied engineering at BYU and spent most of his life designing and building homes so this kind of thing made him tick.

This is the last picture that I have of him and the last time I saw him alive. He came out shortly after Miya was born (August 2006) and we got to spend about a day and a half together before he had to fly back home and work. This picture still makes me cry. I will forever be grateful that I got to see him even for the short time that he was here. We sat and talked a lot and took a lot of pictures, more than usual. I was able to bring him to the airport and as he was leaving he gave me a big hug. He told me I was a great mommy and he said, "I'm proud of you baby." He always said it to me just like that. Always with the baby on the end because I was his youngest and it always made me feel so loved and cared for. It made me cry then and it makes me cry every time I think about it now. There's a song that Carrie Underwood sings and a line in it goes, "and make sure you tell Daddy that I'm still his little girl, I know I'm where I'm supposed to be, don't forget to remember me." I'm still my Daddy's little girl. I miss him terribly and I hope that I can continue to live my life in a way that would make him say, "I'm proud of you baby."