Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 6 of 6

(Luray)
We’d often joke that dad was going to live to 90 or 100 just to annoy us because, let’s be real, we teased dad about being a grumpy old man even before the stroke and the stroke just gave him more reason to be a grump. 

(Jenna)
We’ll miss his calls, all six of them in a row if we didn’t answer the first time, saying that he was “out of everything”, meaning Honey Buns, Little Bites, and Yoo-Hoo which had recently become affectionately known as “Moo-Hoo” after one funny slip of the tongue. 

(All of us)
So, to the “old man”, daddy-o, Pop Pop, Ted, T-Wayne, we’d like to make a Moo Hoo toast. Cheers, Dad. We love you, Dad – Forever!

Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 5 of 6

(Julie)
Dad loved driving, which is probably why he never seemed to mind the long rides to New Jersey and back. He could name off every car he’d ever owned. His most trusted car was probably the 92 Chevy Lumina he got from his Aunt Elsie. That car had well over 250,000 miles on it by the end and made for great memories as my first car.

Dad took us to a lot of Florida Marlins games as kids. In our early 20s, he started getting season tickets for weekend games. We had so much fun with dad at those games. We probably let him spend way too much money on beer for us but we did try to save him some money by sneaking in liquor. He’d always roll his eyes and laugh when we started pulling them out. For a long time, dad was our little side kick. We’d bring him all over the place with us and our friends loved hanging out with Ted.

(Jenna)
One of dad’s all time favorite hobbies was watching tv. He was always a “couch potato” and that fact was apparently even memorialized in a couch potato cake for Father’s Day in 1996. He loved watching NASCAR races, the History Channel, DIY Network and most recently he was constantly renting Gone With the Wind, Air Force, They Were Expendable, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and old war movies. We’d always laugh when a text came in that he rented yet another movie.

(Julie)
January 17, 2016. A date we’ll never forget because our Dad and our lives changed drastically. Overnight we went from the Dad we could always call for advice or help to the Dad who needed all of our help. I don’t think we fully believed that dad could have had a stroke, especially such a major one. We were pretty certain he was indestructible even until last week. The last six and a half years with dad were filled with trials, tribulations, tears, lots of laughter, and even more snacks. We were all pushed to our emotional and physical limits trying to make sure dad got the care that he needed but he’d earned it. 

Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 4 of 6

(Julie)
Dad was our everything. We would call him for anything and could always count on him to be there. Before the days of GPS, you could call him, tell him where you thought you might be, and he would somehow manage to direct you and get you where you needed to go. He seemed to know at least a little bit about everything. He taught us how to cook meat…always with zesty Italian dressing…but never how to cut it. When he finally stopped precutting our meat, we had no idea what to do and we are still terrible at it.

(Luray)
Dad worked in aviation for over 45 years and was an aircraft instrument technician. We always describe what he did by saying “You know all those little things pilots look at when they’re flying? He fixes those things. It’s really tedious and boring.” But to him it wasn’t boring. It was a passion. I remember how proud he would be talking about an instrument that no one else could figure out how to fix but he would fix it. He worked at Aviation Plus for many years and was very fond of everyone at “the shop”. He also loved building model airplanes and always had his reading glasses balancing on the edge of his nose to do it.

Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 3 of 6

(Jenna)
When I think back on growing up with dad, his sing song wake ups always stick out in my mind. He’d open the door and say “Miss Julie, Miss Jenna.” I can almost transport myself back to his apartment in the Cascades in Kendall and smell the comforter we’d peek out from under and groan because we didn’t want to get up.

When we were kids, we’d drive up to New Jersey every summer with dad to visit our sister Luray and the rest of the New Jersey crew. We would always try to get dad to let us pick music stations but he’d almost never budge. No matter what state we were in, he could find the classic rock stations and we’d be listening to The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Santana and the Beatles. We’d also always beg to stay at South of the Boarder because it looked so cool. I’ll never forget the year we finally convinced him to stop and the rooms were sold out. It never mattered that we didn’t actually stay there. We’d finally gotten him to say yes and that was enough.

(Luray)
As an adult, Dad would come to NJ yearly to inspect Aunt Elsie’s Lumina and to meet his grand babies Rocco & Ashley. Once we bought our house, Dad loved being able to do small home projects for us. It made him feel like he was doing what he could to help us being that he lived so far away. He did new outlets and took down the original antenna off our roof. He also did fun day trips with all the kids and even broke his ribs on a Superman ride at Great Adventure. That slowed him down a bit on the crazy rides!!

Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 2 of 6

(Luray)
My memories with Dad are a bit different since Dad moved to Florida when I was 5 and only visited with him in the summers. In my younger years I used to go with him to Hill Air at the airport. I used to love watching the storms roll in. Every summer I used to make dad take me to Ocean World for the dolphin shows. I wanted to be a dolphin trainer until I realized I couldn’t dive!!! We also did the Jungle Cruise many times and also did a trip to Disney World! Even though he lived in Florida I was a Daddy’s girl when we were together. As I got older, my 8 week visits got a little shorter but the time together was always precious. I loved once my Dad and Marilyn married - she is the best Step-Mom a girl could ask for.

(Julie)
In 1985, Dad’s favorite daughter, me -Julie, was born. Three and a half years later came Jenna, who became Dad’s favorite about 25 years later. When Dad found out our mom was pregnant, he said “how the hell did that happen?” to which Mom said, “Ted, you’re 43 years old, I think you know how it happened.” Our parents’ marriage may not have worked out but they made great strides to coparent not just amicably, but as excellent role models. They remained great friends all the way to the end.

After the divorce we’d go to Dad’s every other weekend. It’s probably not a surprise to learn that every Friday when he’d pick us up he’d always take us for fast food. Taco Bell was a frequent spot because we loved it even if he claimed he didn’t. The frequent requests for a burrito supreme after his stroke suggest otherwise. I remember loving being able to watch MTV on those weekends. Dad had cable and that was such a luxury to us.

Our Eulogy to Dad, Part 1 of 6

(Julie)
Although today is a day we knew would come, today is not a day that we thought would come so soon.

(Luray)
We are Ted’s daughters. His girls.

(Jenna)
Although our experiences growing up with Dad were varied, we know with complete certainty that Dad really loved and cared about us.

(Luray)
Dad was born in Santa Maria, California on January 31, 1945 to our grandparents Eleanor and Milton Van Pelt. They moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey within a few months.

The family eventually moved to Clark, New Jersey where he attended Arthur L. Johnson High School and graduated in 1963. Dad really loved his high school classmates and always looked forward to going to his high school reunions, the latest one being in October 2018 for his 55th reunion.

After high school, Dad served in the Navy and then married his high school sweetheart, Helen, in December 1965. They welcomed a baby girl, Dad’s first favorite, me - Luray, within a year and divorced a few years later.

(Julie)
Why do people move from New Jersey to Florida? Generally because of one of 3 reasons: money, love, or work. If you know dad well enough, you already know he was chasing tail. That romantic relationship didn’t last long but his love for Florida did and the “back when I moved here, this was all swamp” stories were a big part of growing up. In the late 1970’s, dad met Marilyn. They married 14 months later and he adopted our brother, Jeff. Luray would come down every summer.

OBITUARY

Theodore Wayne Van Pelt

31 January, 1945 – 24 August, 2022

Kraeer Funeral Home & Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens

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