 My husband and girls, Bodie Island Lighthouse 2009 "A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men." ~author Unknown My girls have an amazing relationship with their dad. It is something the three of them have worked at building together for a long time, no easy task when you're an active duty military member who works long hours and deploys frequently. Somehow, though, they managed to work around those problems. Now that he's retired from the Air Force, he texts them almost every morning, stops by to check on them frequently, and often drops things off for them like groceries or the vacuum cleaner he recently fixed for them to use. He bakes for them and teaches them about budgeting, and if you ask them, those girls will tell you that he is the kind of man who sets a very high bar. I must admit, part of me is envious of the relationship they share, not because I feel it takes away from my own relationship with them, but because they have with their dad what I always wanted with mine. Today my father came for lunch, and we sat at the kitchen counter together eating and talking about life. Mostly our conversations veer towards the inconsequential, but I don't mind. Being able to spend time with him is so rare, when it happens I'm always extremely grateful. I didn't have my dad around when I was growing up because after he and my mother divorced, I barely got to see him. Now that I'm grown and we've moved close, I'm greedy for every moment. He can be a stubborn, grumpy ol' mountain man, but he has such a fun sense of humor, when he allows you to see it. He also has this uncanny way about him to slip something insightful into a conversation that reveals he's aware of much more than he lets on. I tingled with pride when he complimented my potato soup and cornbread. "I like cornbread," he confessed. "And this is really good," he added. I felt a huge sense of comfort and warmth when he told me the food I was sending home with him would be his dinner tonight. When lunch was over, he came down to see the newly completed "Man Cave" and the pergola I built almost completely by myself this summer, both of which he complimented with pride. Today I'm happy that I got to have lunch with my father. The fact that my youngest daughter called me this morning just to say "I love you, Mom" is the frosting on my happy Wednesday cupcake! Today is a good day to have a good day!  My dad & me, Easter 1972
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About The Author
I grew up in rural North Carolina. When I was only nineteen, I moved away and became a military wife. My only aspiration at that tender time in my life was to create an adult life that "fixed" all of the "injustices" of my childhood. Secretly, however, I wanted to reach for the sky! I wanted to be a writer and find ways to "save the world" (my mother used to say, "You have Save the World Syndrome".). Mostly, I wanted to matter. Archives
August 2021
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