Dad’s Day

Today is Father’s Day. My dad resides in heaven so I don’t get the joy of spending the day with him in person and wishing him a Happy Father’s Day. But I do want to honor him and recognize what a great dad he was to myself and my brothers and sister.

My brothers and sister and I were Dad’s second family. He was married before Mom and had raised two step-daughters. After they were grown, and long after his divorce, he still had the desire to be married and have kids of his own, as in kids with his genetic heritage.

I have mentioned before in this blog but it’s worth mentioning again that Dad relished being a father. He considered us kids his greatest accomplishment and wanted us to be happy above everything else. There were many, many things he did with us to make great memories from going out to breakfast to road trips to building us a playroom in the basement and putting a pool in the backyard. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up but he did what he could to give us what he thought would make us happy.

When I was older and had left home, he started sending me things. There was a Mail Boxes Ect. around the corner from the grocery store where he would go shopping for Mom. So if he came across a funny card, he would stop there on his way home and mail the card off to me. Or he would send me newspaper articles he thought I would find interesting. Or anything else that he would think would brighten my day.

Everything he sent had as the return address D.O.D., which stood for Dear Old Dad. It was his little acronym for himself. Very sweet.

In thinking about this today, there were two things that he sent me that really cracked me up and warmed my heart. The first thing that he sent came about a week after a conversation he and I had one Sunday. We talked every Sunday afternoon and, one Sunday, I mentioned to him that I had to go out to buy new white socks. When I lived at home, I would always go into his drawer and steal his white athletic socks to wear with sneakers. He knew I did this and always had a whole drawer full so there would be enough that he could wear and I could wear. I told him on the phone that I missed stealing his socks and now I needed to buy my own.

The following Saturday, I went to the post office to get my mail and there was a box for me from D.O.D. I took it back to my apartment and opened it and it was filled with his white socks! No note. No explanation. Just a box full of used white socks. The same socks I would steal from his drawer. He just pulled a whole bunch out of his drawer, popped them in a box and mailed them to me.

I called him up to thank him and he said that now I didn’t need to buy them for myself. He had provided socks for me, just like at home. It not only warmed my heart by my feet as well!

The second thing he sent me came a week after another conversation we had on a Sunday. We were finishing up the talk and he mentioned that he should probably go since he needed to run to the store for Mom. I said, “buy me something!”. I used to say that all the time when I was growing up and he was going to the store. As he would leave the house, I would say “buy me something!”, which was really cute coming from a tiny blond girl with a lisp. He would smile and come home with Twinkies or a candy bar or some other treat for us kids. So, when I said “buy my something” this time, I used my best little girl voice and he laughed and asked what I would like. I told him a Milky Way bar. He laughed again and we said our good-byes (and said I love you – always, always, always say I love you when ending a conversation with someone you love).

The following Saturday, I went to get my mail and there was a small padded envelope from D.O.D. When I opened it, out fell two squished Milky Way bars! He had bought me a couple of candy bars, stopped at the Mail Boxes Etc. and mailed them to me on his way home. No note. No explanation. Just the candy. They were squished having going through the postage machines but delicious none-the-less. They not only tasted good but warmed my heart.

Dad did have his shortcomings and did make mistakes in raising us. But he did his best and always did things with love. He adored us and we knew it. He was funny, smart, caring and strong. A truly wonderful Dad.

I miss him beyond measure. But I know that he is waiting for me and my brothers and sister in heaven so someday we will see him again. In the mean time, I have great memories to remember him by and to warm my heart.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!