Oh my goodness. Pretty much all of your situation happened to me in April, at the start of my last semester. The semester started, my dad never recovered from a family vacation somewhere he dreamed of going before he died, and after staying up with him for five nights aside from school, he died on Sunday morning. The worst day of my life, losing the person who molded me and my best traits. My dad and I were very close, as my mom has mental issues I recently discovered. He always encouraged me to pursue education, and I went through with my final semester.

Part of it was because that's what Dad was so excited about - seeing his kid graduate and finally live dreams. The other part? I didn't know if I could ever go back to school if I dropped out that semester. But I did it and graduated a few weeks ago.

I'll be going to counseling for my dad's death next month, but I'm better than I was. Grief affects people differently, but I suddenly found every school assignment extremely terrifying and difficult, was messing up on schoolwork constantly, and I still somehow end up crying over my dad when even the smallest things go wrong. I'm a 3.80 student and I couldn't do nearly as well as usual after this happened. I feel that I scraped by several of my classes due to mercy on my professors' ends.

Don't feel stupid. Communicate with your wife and good friends. Don't mope - stay active. Decide based on what you know about yourself if you do have the will to skip a semester and return(but finish it since you, your dad, and your family value it). Schools and professors can be very understanding potentially. Let yourself cry even when it's silly.

You know yourself the best, so you have to decide what to do, but these are the things I have learned so far. Recovery is still distant to me. However, I'm rather grateful you posted; our situation is almost identical, and going about these hardships is easier with others.