Sunday, October 27, 2019
For anyone that does not know me, I am Troys youngest sister Catrina, Same father different mothers. Troy was only 13 years old when i was born and not long after that My brothers Mike and Troy were involuntary obligated to help my single father raise 2 very young little girls. my sister Christa and I... My brothers were a huge part of raising me But it did prevent them from having a normal teenage life and put responsibility on them that i have no doubt carried heavy weight on their shoulders. my brother Mike had to go to work with our father and troy had to stay home all day everyday watching his baby sisters. if you ask me i think troy got the better deal... But i do not think he saw it that way. I am sure that all of troys siblings got something different from him, as he played so many parts in each of our lives. But for me. I remember he was not to thrilled about about a 2 year old .. peeing her pants and changing diapers, so Potty training is the first memories i have of him. he took it very seriously and those spankings when i had accident felt serious too. but our “ peepee on the potty” parties had just as much impact to me as the spankings did. other memories of my childhood include Troy teaching me to ride my bike with training wheels, and then later teaching me to ride without training wheels. Back in my days. those were big milestones in a Childs life. He was there. Troy could of done the very minimum co- parenting me and my sister by just keeping us fed and safe, but he did so much more. i remember many memories of him sitting on the floor playing with me, teaching me how to say words correctly, taking me to get ice cream, bundling me up in my winter clothes to play in the snow and make snowmen. Many of these things i would not of had because my father was a single father and had to work all the time, so for that i am so very thankful for him. Because of him, i still do not pee my pants, i still build snowman and i can still ride my bike without falling. My father was a push over with the little girls, so troy was the main disciplinarian and his technique for punishment was to stand a few feet back from the wall with only our nose touching and our hands behind our backs. Something my dad carried on throughout our life. so i thought of him every time i had my nose on the wall .. maybe it helped form a slightly smaller nose than i would of had. So thank you I guess.
Luckily for my brothers my father did get married eventually, relieving them of co-parenting the girls. but he stayed very present in my life. and his visits lightened my world every time. He then could just be my brother.
If i had to describe my brother i would say he was a man of very few words, but when he spoke everyone listened. he was very competitive and strived to be the best at everything he did, and he was, from motocross, playing pool, Darts, Golf, hunting, baseball and he could build just about anything with perfection. Besides my father he was the hardest working man i have ever known, he had a very successful career in block masonry, following in our fathers footsteps. and about 13 years ago when troy was living in florida and working as a block mason i was there the day he beat my fathers record of laying 600 blocks in one day.. troy laid 601. Our father thought the world of Troy and was so very proud of the man he had become.
Every tombstones is stamped with 2 dates and a “dash” In between those 2 dates ...the Dash - is what tells our story, it is who we are, where people came in and went out of our lives, what we have done, how we have made people feel, the memories we have left them with, the mistakes we have made. Our struggles, and accompaniments, and also our regrets. Some people have a chance to have final words before passing and do things that they have wanted to do and never did, say things that were left unsaid, unfortunately Troy did not have the opportunity to know he needed to say or do a last anything, but if i had to guess, i think he would tell his family and friends thank you for joining him on his journey of life, I think he would tell his sons that he is proud of them, that he is sorry and they he loves them.