On the 6th of June of 2013, my father Juan was diagnoses with Pancreatic Cancer. On the 8th of March of this year, my dad lost his battle with cancer.

I am fortunate; I have had 49 wonderful years with my amazing father. The voice of reasoning tells me that I should be content for having those 49 year with him, but my heart, well, my heart aches for the loss of an extraordinary man who I was fortunately to be his daughter.

I was his baby and no matter how old I was; my father was very proud to introduce me to all his friends, acquaintances and even strangers off the street, as his “Baby Darling”, even at 49. These past 4 months since his passing have been hard. I miss being his “Baby Darling”, I miss his amazing smile, I miss talking to him on the phone everyday…..I even miss his Latin temper.

I suppose what hurts the most is the fact that my beautiful daughters, Katie and Sammie, had such a short period of time with him. My father was a wonderful grandfather to all his grandchildren. He would make up stories about himself and share them with his grandchildren. My dad had a great imagination and the stories he would tell were out of this world, and will be remembered and passed on to the next generation. My favorite stories were:

• He was the Cuban Crocodile Dundee
• He was the first Cuban Downhill Ski Champion
• He won a Gold medal in Free Style Ice Skating in the Winter Olympics for Cuba

Cancer has robbed too many families of precious loved ones. One day we will beat Cancer, the more research we do, the sooner that day will come.