Skip to main content

Who's your Daddy?


I'll be telling my age when I mention a really cool song by the Zombies - Time of the Season, but I thought it appropriate as I write this post about Father's Day. 

In 1967, the song came out and I fell in love with the melody and the lyrics. The chorus would get stuck in my head and live there for days. See if you remember it -

What's your name? (What's your name?)
Who's your daddy? (Who's your daddy?)
(He rich) Is he rich like me?
Has he taken (Has he taken)
Any time (Any time)
(To show) To show you what you need to live?

(Tell it to me slowly) Tell you what
(I really want to know)
It's the time of the season for loving

You can watch/listen to it on YouTube if you aren't familiar with it: 

Anyway, I always wondered about those who had no idea who their Daddy might be. I'm thankful I know who mine was and boy, do I miss him. 

My Daddy was a character. It's hard to believe he's been gone for 11 years now. He was an honest, hardworking man with a great sense of humor. I could write volumes about him but I won't. Instead, I'll share one very special moment from the Caring Bridge journal I kept for him during his last months as he was battling lung cancer.
 
This journal entry was dated Wednesday, June 22, 2011:

....As I was preparing to leave, I leaned down to tell Daddy goodnight and encouraged him to go back to bed. He always thinks he has to stay up until the last visitor leaves. I rubbed him on the back and said "I love you" and to my surprise, he said, "I love you three." "I love you three???" What does that mean? I had to think about it a few minutes until I got it. Usually when someone says I love you, the recipient of that sentiment responds back with "I love you, too."
 
You'd have to know my Daddy. He loves to joke around and so instead of saying, "I love you, too (two)", he said, "I love you three." Daddy never has been a very affectionate father. Oh, he's always loved us, but he just wasn't very vocal about it. I don't guess he ever thought words were really that important. I think he thought if he knew he loved you and you knew he loved you, then why bother wasting words. For him to tell me, "I love you three," was a really powerful statement and one I'll always treasure. Daddy, in his dying state, wanted me to know that he really does love me and though he's a man of very few words, he chose those four very carefully before he said them. Those four words were meant just for me. "I love you three." ...I love you Daddy. I'll always love you.
 
On August 18, 2011, Daddy went home to be with his Eternal Father. I'm sure this Father's day, just like every other day in Heaven, he'll have a grand celebration.

I sure loved him and miss him every single day. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes I just want to pull my hair out

Sometimes I just want to pull my hair out, especially when I read a friend's blog post and I just can't wrap my head around it. This morning, I was reading a post from a fellow breast cancer survivor. She said her cancer has returned and is growing in her spine. As soon as I read the words, I burst into tears. I just didn't understand! We'd been diagnosed with the same type of cancer in the same year. How could it be that her cancer had returned and mine had not? And what made it even more difficult to understand and accept was the fact that she'd chosen to go the traditional treatment route. I'd opted not to do that. She'd endured chemotherapy, radiation, and the anti-hormone therapy afterward. I'd refused chemo, had done 28 rounds of radiation, and had only taken the anti-hormone drugs for a couple of months. It just didn't compute and it certainly didn't seem fair. But that's what sucks about cancer. It doesn't follow the rules.

Incoming!

 When I was a kid, I remember listening to my Daddy occasionally talk about being in the service. Those occasions were very rare so whenever he'd talk, I'd really listen. Once he told about being outside a bunker in Japan. He said planes were flying overhead and he heard a guy yell, "Incoming!" They knew that meant it was imperative to take cover and they did, but some of the soldiers weren't fast enough. They lost their lives in a split second.  That one word was a very serious warning and one I never forgot. I think my eyes bugged out of my head when he first said it although he didn't say it in a frightening way. I imagined the sounds of aircraft overhead as the warning went out. And imagined how I'd have felt if I'd been right there with him. I'd have been petrified, probably unable to move. No wonder so many soldiers came back from war with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). And when they were freshly home, it didn't take much to set t

Cancer the gift that keeps on giving - the high cost of cancer

There's a basket of bills sitting in the corner of my bedroom. I try not to look at it as I enter the room but I know it's there. Its contents spill out onto the floor whenever my husband stuffs another bill into the basket. Usually, when the mail comes, he gets it first so he can filter what I see and what I don't see. Since he's the only one working, he takes care of our financial responsibilities and while I'm thankful for that, I'm not ignorant about our mounting bills. Cancer is expensive. Even if you've reached maintenance phase, it's costly. There are always tests to be run, blood to be taken, doctors to see. It never ends. Just knowing this will be a continual process for the rest of my life frustrates me and the alternative, death, will be my only way out. It would be nice to know that cancer could be a once and done kind of thing but that's only wishful thinking. Everyone knows cancer is a long and very involved illness. I had no id