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June 17, 2007
Father's Day
I took this photograph of a father and his son playing in the surf during a vacation a couple of summers ago. I was so touched and inspired by this man’s overwhelming love for his child. The way he cherished his boy reminds me of my dad.
I wrote my father the following letter some years ago:
Dear Dad,
I just wanted to thank you so much for the fantastic childhood you and mom gave me. I often want to be a child again so that I can feel the love, warmth, joy and security you always gave me.
Although money was very hard to come by while we were growing up, I never felt deprived of anything. Your love has given me more wealth than money could ever buy.
I will never forget the time you held me in your arms when I was so badly stung by the Jelly Fish in Durban.
I will never forget your tears when I went into surgery at six years old to have my severely squint left eye repaired.
I will never forget the one single tear that ran down your smiling check when you took me to Linksfield Primary School on my first day.
I will never forget you adjusting my tie before the high school dance. (I will always remember your smile and wink as I turned to say goodbye to you at the front door.)
I will never forget you passing me a care package through the barbed wire fence after our twelve weeks of basic training. (I can still feel your hand ruffling my hair as I sobbed, begging you to take me away from the two years of military training that ripped my childhood out of my soul and left it whimpering alongside the road to Fourth Field Regiment.)
I will never forget waving goodbye to you when I left South Africa. Not knowing if I would ever see you again. In my mind I still see the slow motion image of you with your arm around mom waving goodbye to me as I boarded the plane.
Thank you dad for giving me the best childhood a person could ever hope for.
Trev
My mum says my dad cried as hard as she’d ever seen him cry when he received my letter.
The letter took me months to send because I wanted to add so much to it and didn’t know how to end it. Eventually I sent it as is.
I’m so glad I did.
Two weeks later my father passed away suddenly. Stunned I flew home from America to be with my family. (The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was the longest 18 hours I have ever experienced in my life.)
At home, while helping my mum sort through my dad’s belongings I found the letter in his wallet.
He died with my letter in his pocket.
He died knowing how much I appreciated and loved him.
Happy Father's Day dad. I miss you so much.
Posted by trevor at June 17, 2007 08:08 AM
Comments
Hey! Trevor.. Itz very sad that ur father left u. But he gave u a lot of memories to cherish, to remember n to pass them on to ur children later. Even ur father loved you so much that he never let go ur letter from his pocket. HATS OFF man...
And the pic is good...
Posted by: Mahesh at June 15, 2008 04:17 AM