He worked in fuel system manufacturing for 30 years. When I worked in IT consulting, he told me my life would be better spent making something.

When I started Frangipani, he timed me; pick up the bottle, put the bottle down, pick up the cap, screw on the cap, etc. I said he was insane. He told me it was critical to Frangipani making money. My business degree has been helpful but I knew he was right about anything related to making things.

He insisted we track ingredients being assembled into final products in my financial software. Every accountant who saw how specifically we tracked things was awed. In the early days, when I traded a Frangipani product for something at the farmers market, he said, "That doesn't pay your mortgage, Tracy." He was right.

We always made lotion together. I talked; he listened because he was never a man of many words. I worked a lot out with him on those special days. It never would have occurred to me I would get 17 years of making lotion with my dad, the guy who had to be reminded everything had to look pretty.

When I started making large batches of deodorant, he came to help me. I had multiplied the recipe and told him it would be pourable into each tube. He was all in. And then it was a sticky, clumped up mess. I was really stressed. We gave up, vowed to try again, but he wanted to take the recipe home to look it over. It wasn't long before he called. "Who taught you math?" Our next try was successful with his math.

When Whole Foods dropped Frangipani after 12 years, I was really scared. I got the courage to say I wondered if it was time to be done and move on. The immediate devastated look on his face was all the attitude adjustment I needed to say I, WE, would figure out how to keep going.

We joked that he, and my mom who has also been critical to Frangipani's success, were paid in love. There is truly no way to measure what they have done for me. Money couldn't ever cover it.

I like the idea of making it to 20 years. I have several things to figure out in his giant absence. But how about if we do it, just for my dad.