Aza Raskin posted a sad but beautiful heart touching story about the last gift his father gave him:

Three days before he passed, Jef had an accident. He needed to use the restroom, so—stooped under his arm—I supported his weight as he hobble to his business. There was something quietly unsettling about escorting my father to a toilet that had been taller than me when we first moved into the house twenty years earlier. I sat him down, walked out, and closed the door. Moments later, a crash jolted the house. I slammed the door open. The metallic smell of water fresh from a pipe whipped my nose and water flooded the floor. The toilet was dislocated from its base like an arm from its socket, and lodged between the toilet and the wall was my father. Despite his size, he looked small and meager. He stared up at me with eyes full of innocent surprise. Why am I on the floor, they asked? Why am I wet? The shocked curiosity in his wide-open eyes is the single most haunting image I have of my father. In the dark space between closing my eyes and falling asleep, that image sometimes steals in and taints me. When it does, there is no help for it. I have to get out of bed and go for a run. Otherwise, sleep will be overshadowed by those confused, guileless eyes.

I’ve always had a deep respect and admiration for Aza Raskin. I’ve used Enso before I knew who he was, but then Mozilla started coming up with interesting experiments, all coming from this Raskin guy. I’ve never been a fan of Mozilla’s main applications but I admire his work a lot because he never seems afraid of experimentation and play — the father of invention. Plus, his blog is a very interesting compendium of well-thought and well-written pieces on various aspects of UX Design, be it the tabs on the side or the problems with Alt-Tab.

Back when I started caring more about users and getting more serious about learning UX Design, I found about another Raskin, who started the Macinstosh project at Apple, invented click-and-drag and first coined the term Information Appliance. Jef Raskin — Aza’s father — was that man. The more I learn about him, the more I believe that his influence as designer and inventor will never fade away from us. That’s particularly evident as a great influence of Aza’s work and writing.

Aza, thank you for sharing this much about Jef. He would most certainly be proud.