Rising From the Ashes

This is my parents' new deck - the one with the hot tub on it.

This was once the location of my dad's shop.  He's a (spectacularly talented) gunsmith.

Last year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, his shop burned to the ground, along with all the guns he was working on, and all the tools he's been collecting over the last 50 years.  Everything but the floor.  Gone in a couple of hours.

It was tragic.  The history that was lost is enough to make a grown man cry, and it did.  His tools.  His father's tools.  Irreplaceable, all of it.  He was devastated.

Until one day, he got this idea.  Why not build a deck on top of the remains.  The floor was still solid, and usable, and hey - let's add a gazebo and by the way I found a hot tub on e-bay and why not add a vegetable garden, too.

And so was born the "Phoenix Deck."  rising from the ashes of tragedy - already making new history.  We christened it last weekend with a fish fry hosted and prepared by my 90 year old grandfather.  We gathered family and food and celebrated life again. 

We celebrated my grandmother's upcoming 89th birthday and my grandfather's upcoming 91st. 

We laughed and hugged and made Frank sit at the kids' table.

It's enough to make a grown man cry. (with happiness)

(good job, Daddy.)