To the man who tied my track shoes…
The one who gave the sidewalk a spanking when I fell…
The amazing girl dad who always said he wished he could take away my “period pain”, but he couldn’t, so he’d take me for ice cream and car rides to soothe my uterus…
To the man who would make my boyfriends hang up and call back to try again if their manners were not up to par the first time…
The man who ALWAYS told me how beautiful I am and that I didn’t need all that make-up…
The man who warmed my little kid hands underneath his giant arms when I’d come in from playing outside in the winter…
To the man who always said, “Just call me. I’ll come to pick you up. No questions asked.”…
The man who would fall asleep during mass and told me he was just “resting my eyes.”…
To the man who would follow me in the car so I could be safe, as I ran long-distance practice runs in junior high and high school…
To the man who would wake me up at 5am and tell me to grab a blanket and a pillow, pile me in the car, buckle me in, and take a road trip while I slept, eventually waking up some place a few hours away for a day of adventure…
To the man who instilled in me the spirit of roadtripping with no plan just a rough draft route in his head…
To the man who threw the fish back, when I was sobbing at 7 years old because I could not handle the poor fish gasping for it’s life…
To the man I would visit on his mail route to have lunch with…
To the man who always loved whatever gift I gave him, no matter how silly or simple it was…
TO THE MAN WHO SHOWED UP AT MY TRACK MEETS IN HIS POSTAL UNIFORM, LOUDLY YELLING FOR ME TO SPRINT AND FINISH STRONG, YELLING “TURN IT ON TURN IT ON, SPRINT!”…
And to the man who said, “I’m not your friend, I am your dad” (which to me meant he and my momma were my truest best friends), cut from the same cloth…I would have taken care of you forever…
I love you.
Jó éjszakát, apa.
Love,
Lori Annie
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers and singers of song.”
~Pam Brown
Wildflowers Lori 