Monday, November 03, 2008

Dad

He was the one who read us bedtime stories as kids....

When we got older and were able to read by ourselves, he wouldn't yell when he'd come upstairs after lights out and find that we had turned our lights on again to read some more. Instead, he'd say ten more minutes, knowing full well that we'd be sound asleep in five and he'd have to walk upstairs again to turn our light off for us.....

He's the one who would let go of the bike when we were learning to ride, knowing we could do it alone even if we didn't believe it ourselves.....

He's the one that taught us how to drive, never once showing how scared he must have been as we lurched and sputtered and stalled our way around the parking lot and the back roads of our town....

He's the one who gave us our medicine when we were kids, and then a huge mouthful of whipped cream to make it go down just a little easier.....

He's the one who sat patiently by while we brushed our teeth, making sure that we did it for long enough, letting us know that we couldn't rush through it because we'd just have to go back and do it all over again....

He's the one who made snowmen, had snowball fights and built snow forts with us....

He found a scuba diving course for us to take, and then booked a trip to Florida so we could get our certification.....

He's the one that wouldn't let us leave the dinner table until we ate all of our green vegetables saying "Look at all the vitamins swimming around in there!"....

He's the one that would take us swimming and throw us high in the air to land with a large SPLASH that would leave us spluttering and laughing and asking to do it just one more time....

He's the one who asked, "you sure you want to do this?" with a smile and a laugh, moments before walking me down the aisle....

He's the one that dressed all in long sleeves, in the middle of summer, with us so that we can crawl into the raspberry bushes and pick piles of sweet red berries.....

He's the one who wrote a letter to help me gain admission to the British Exchange program, even though I am sure he was nervous about sending me overseas to live for a month....

He's the one that STILL laughs about my Moose Meadow hat....and probably still has it stashed away somewhere.....

He's the one who lives a life that teaches me that you can BE anyone and you can DO anything.....just make sure you do it with honesty and integrity and a little bit of laughter and a whole lot of love.

He's my Dad, and he recently celebrated his 60th birthday, exactly as he wanted: with a huge party surrounded by all the people he loves, and who love him.
Happy Birthday Dad.
I love you,
Your skinny banana

4 comments:

Keetha said...

Hi, I'm visiting from NaBloPoMo.

What a lovely tribute to your father!

JaxMom said...

Very sweet!

Dianna said...

Happy Birthday to your Dad!!

Kim Tracy Prince said...

Happy birthday to your GREAT dad, who I still have a problem calling by his first name.