Father’s Day - A bitterSWEET Day
When I was about 1 year of age, my parents separated and ended up getting divorced. My Mom and Dad were instantly single parents with three little kids in tow. Can you imagine? Anyhow, this meant I spent every other weekend with my Dad and the majority of the rest of the time with my Mom. My mom remarried about 2 years later to one of the greatest guys - my step dad! I like to say our family was one of the first “modern families” in our little area of Iowa. All three parents worked together, no one every fought (not in front of us kids at least) and in fact after a few years my Mom and Dad became really good friends. Believe it or not, my Dad ended up working for my Mom + Step Dad’s company. Like my Mom happily and willingly signed my Dad’s paychecks. I tell my friends this story and they shake their heads and say “that is so weird!” Maybe it was weird, but for us it was normal, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that. Either way, Father’s Day is now a bitterSWEET day because we are down one this year and all the Father’s Days going forward. It’s a hard concept to grasp and one I still have trouble wrapping my head around. The finality of all of it is strange and hard and sad. I’m lucky to have my stepdad - like REALLY REALLY lucky, and even though I’m lucky, there will always be a piece of my heart that is really sad that my Dad’s life ended too soon (in my opinion).
If my Dad were here today I would tell him:
I loved him one more time.
I was proud of him for all he over came and all he accomplished.
That I’m thankful for the role he played in my life.
That I would never have been able to hit a softball without his guidance.
That just now I feel like I’m not afraid to fail which was his biggest piece of advice when I graduated High School.
That my kids look at pictures of him with a lot of admiration and we tell stories often.
That skittles are now a reminder of him and we taste the rainbow a lot around here. (My Dad used to buy the kids full bags of skittles at all of their cousins games that we would attend - only grandparents can get away with that ;))
That I miss him saying, “I’m proud of you! There’s not a dud in this bunch!”
That every time I go downstairs, I think of him. (On his unknowingly last visit to Denver, he helped The Hubs lay new flooring in our basement)
That I started a cookie biz after realizing life is too short to just sit around thinking about doing things.
I would tell him that the boys, Deb, Kayla and I and all our kids miss him dearly.
And lastly I would tell him Happy Birthday! His birthday always fell right around Father’s Day and this year it falls on Father’s Day!
My hope is after you read this, you know and realize just how special life is and that it’s meant to be enjoyed. Life is not always easy, but it’s always worth living. Finding your joy is worth searching for. And finding happiness in the little things is really what matters. Things can change and shift in an instant - I sometimes wish I had one more hour to say all the things I wanted to say, but that’s not how God intended my Dad and my story to end. I would advise you to not be like me and say what you feel and mean what you say- not just today, all the time. You can never say “I love you” too many times and you can never spend too much time with someone you love.
Happy heavenly Father’s Day and happy birthday Dad, and Happy Father’s Day to my hubs who is the BEST Dad I know and happy Father’s Day to my step-dad who has always loved us as his own kids from day one!
xo.
AFK
