Dad Goes Home Travelogue - February 2026

I took some time away from this page intentionally. I apologize but I had a lot to do in a very short amount of time.

I want to thank every single person who has reached out to share a story, send a picture, have a laugh. I could tell you that it's hard but you already know.

Right after Dad's local service, I sat down with a pen and paper to make myself a plan for how to fulfill his final wish to be buried in Sint Maarten. I'd already done a little homework that I've discussed here already but I needed a refresher.

Thanks to Dad's friends who know governmental connections who could help me navigate things, I came to understand that the issue isn't getting his ashes someplace but leaving them wherever I arrive. Dad was clear about where he wanted to be and I know exactly where it is... but he didn't own that land and private property rules are fairly universal everywhere you go.

Over the next month would be a great many stops and starts. I had a plan for March (Dad's birthday was the biggest draw) but the closer I got to the end of the year, the more I heard from folks just how difficult that timing will be.

Getting back to work felt a little surreal in January. I'd been spending a lot of time and energy preparing to clean out his home while also planning a ceremony for him and didn't know if I was going to be able to do it again for an international trip. I came back to an intense political environment marked by federal agents kidnapping people, the killing of two citizens pushing back against it, and an aggressive rolling back of worker's rights in strange places meant I spent February and March doing what Dad would have wanted me to do: rolling up my sleeves and getting shit done.

In a meeting with my direct supervisor, I was politely asked if I made some space for grief. I acknowledged that I'd been avoiding it mostly because I felt like whatever I left on my plate for work would just be waiting for me when I returned, only three times its original size. She gave me the go-ahead to take more time off and moved it from a kind of passive "maybe you should" to a "when will you?"

I looked at the calendar and a lull in work went right alongside my birthday. Justice, now 12, would be off from middle school at the same time as my partner Danielle and her son, Rajon.

It was decided. May 27th through June 1 became the window for Dad's homegoing right then.