100. Love always.

My dad would have been 100 today!

Two posts in one day. This probably isn’t good for building subscribers. I’m lousy at this stuff. Down two paid subscribers, up three free subscribers. Eh, what you gonna do?

I can’t resist posting again however because I realized that it would have been my father’s hundredth birthday today. 100! He had every intention of living that long but it was not to be.

I loved him with all my heart. He wasn’t always the easiest man but what heart and love and passion for justice he had.

Here is the obituary I wrote back in 2008.

URBANA – Joseph E. Voelkl, 83, of Urbana, formerly of Lisle, Illinois died Friday (May 9, 2008) at Heartland Healthcare in Champaign.

A funeral mass will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Urbana. The Rev. Joseph T. Hogan will officiate. Burial will be in Maplewood Cemetery in Rantoul.

Mr. Voelkl was born December 7, 1924, a son of Joseph and Anna Voelkl in Rochester, New York. He married Pauline Nelson in 1952. She survives. Also surviving are three daughters, Deborah Russo of Jamaica Plain, MA, Judith Voelkl of Clemson, SC, Cynthia Voelkl of Champaign, son-in-law Ernest Blackwelder and two beloved grandsons, Leo and Owen Blackwelder.

He served in the South Pacific on a Navy LST during World War II. A proud veteran, he knew the cost of war and his heart broke for the men and women serving in the current war. A lifelong fighter of injustice, his greatest joy as an attorney was winning a case for the underdog. He loved American history, antiques, and the history of habeas corpus. His spirit will be greatly missed by those that knew him.

My beautiful parents. The bottle of coke still blows my mind. Obviously a holiday.

Dad and baby Cynthia with Judi in the background.

Putting the umbrella up at low tide on Crescent Beach in Maine with my grandmother standing by.

Dad with me as a Brownie. Note the white gloves. This might have been before a parade in downtown Lisle.

At Debbie’s high school graduation.

Pouring wine at our wedding in our Rogers Park apartment. Note Big Boys on top of refrigerator. Oh, and that raw piece of wood on the door frame so evidently just after someone broke into our apartment.

My parents just after they moved to Champaign. The lure of grandchildren.

With his beloved Leo.

On their 50 anniversary. Owen had just been born.

Frolicking on the couch with his beloved grandsons.

With his baby sister Mary Ellen.

At a Labor Day parade in Urbana. Every single time anybody in military uniform would go by he would slowly and painfully rise to his feet and salute. It was unbelievably beautiful.

Happy birthday with all my love, Dad. You did good.

Onward.

Love,
Cynthia