I'm sorry for the years 1992-1996. As a current parent of a daughter, I can only imagine what my dating years did to your nerves. I was a good girl, but can only imagine what you must've thought every time I dressed myself up for a date and headed out that door. I know that I will begin suffering the paybacks for that in about 6 years.
My apologies for my left-leaning, liberal ways. Despite your best attempts, your daughter is a democrat (gasp) and thanks for just letting that be. I know it must boggle your mind how you raised a child who would have such different views. Thank goodness you never let that come between us, though I know I drove you crazy in my undergrad days, trying to make you see the wisdom of my ways!
Thank you for taking me fishing when I was little, thank you for letting me hang around the garage, and thanks for letting me be me. I credit these experiences for my high school physics teacher assessment that I had great mechanical skills (the best of any "girl" he'd ever taught, but we'll skip over that little piece of sexism shall we?).
Thank you for being the grandpa that you are. My kids so look forward to coming to your house, they love you the way a kid should get to love a grandpa. For the tickles and candy and jokes. That's just how it's supposed to be.
You never shied from being the parent. From giving some tough love.
Thank you for loving my mom the way you do and thank you for teaching your kids about loyalty, hard work, and respect. I know that I found the right guy, a guy with many similar traits, because you set that bar high.
If only everyone had a dad like you. What a world that would be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7 comments:
This is a lovely post. You're such a good daughter -- your dad did a v. good job.
But can we hear the full story about the jeep in the lake? Please.
Yep, we'd all be much better off if every kid in the world had that kind of father.
What a lovely tribute! Yes, please the story of the jeep in the lake!
What a great tribute to your wonderful father. I too was a lucky girl and had a fantastic father. For some reason I didn't realize how blessed I was until leaving home. We were both blessed with such strong dads. Thanks for sharing, it brought a tear to my eye.
I hope you said this to your dad. I think dad's just think they "provided" for their children. But in reality they do so much more. They need to hear that their kids got more than "provided" for. Yeah, dads!!!
Aunt J - mom printed out a copy for dad and he read it on the deck on Father's Day. :-)
What a beautiful post--it brought tears to my eyes!
Post a Comment