Dads
This is a special story that our editorial team decided to select as a New Year’s Special. Hope you enjoy it.
Once upon a time there was a quiet, shy little blonde haired girl whose Daddy was a tough Master Sergeant in the Army. On the day she was born, her Daddy came to the hospital nursery, saw his little girl through the glass, and then left for Vietnam. He didn’t come back until she was a year old. But he came back, and that’s what counted.
This little skinny girl was so shy, that on the first day of Kindergarten she crawled into a bookshelf and curled into a ball and cried until her Mommy finally came to get her. She had no brothers and sisters, so she had a quiet life. Her Daddy played games with her, like Scrabble, from the time she was small. And every year her Daddy took her to an amusement park where he rode the rides with her and played skee ball for hours just to win his little girl a prize.
One day when she was about 9 years old, the shy little girl came home from school crying inconsolably. A bigger girl had been bullying her at school… calling names, making fun, getting other kids to laugh at her. On the way home on the school bus, this bully had often brought bags of candies and gumballs to share… and would give them out to everyone on the bus except the shy little girl, who sat and stared out the bus window, trying to pretend she didn’t see the treats being passed around to everyone but her. No one knows for sure why the bully decided to pick on the shy girl, but she was merciless. She would smash spiders and bees on the bus and then wipe them on the shy little girl, while everyone laughed. On this particular occasion, the shy little girl had gone to school excited about her new winter coat. It was puffy and warm, and had fake fur around the collar and hood like an Eskimo coat. But the bully had chewed a big wad of gum, and then stuck it deep into the furred hood on the shy girl’s new coat.
When her father heard the story, told by his daughter between sobs, he was irate. He comforted his child the best he could, and then he decided he would never let this happen again. But tearily she pleaded, “Please Daddy, don’t call the school. Don’t tell the bus driver! Everyone will laugh at me even more!” So instead, every morning, he got up early and drove his shy little girl to school so she would not have to ride that bus anymore.
One day on the way home from school, the shy girl and her Daddy just happened to be driving behind her old school bus. The bully looked out the back window and saw the shy little girl, hunched down in her seat next to her father, trying to be invisible. But the bully taunted, even through the windows… pointing, laughing, mocking. Mile after mile the shy girl looked away, tears in her eyes, as the children pressed against the glass, laughing and pointing at the urging of the bully girl. At each stoplight the bully would stick her middle finger up and flip off the shy girl. Light after light. The stoplights seemed endless. The little shy girl didn’t notice her father’s face getting redder and redder, his fists clenching the steering wheel… until at one stoplight, suddenly her father was out the door and storming up to the school bus. The shy girl’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped open as she watched her father banging on the school bus doors until they opened. Her father angrily marched right up inside the bus, while the stoplight turned green and cars were honking, and he went straight to the back of the bus and in his 6 foot 1, booming Army Master Sergeant voice he made it VERY CLEAR to this bully that she was NOT going to disrespect him OR his child ANYMORE.
When he got back into the car and shut the door, nothing was said. The shy girl was terribly embarrassed, but noticed that none of the children on the bus dared even look backward out the window at her or her father. And that bully… she never spoke to the shy little girl again. She never even looked at her sideways.
Day after day, the Daddy continued drive his daughter to school and pick her up afterward. Even when the bully had moved on to other things, and the shy girl decided she would try riding the bus again, her Daddy got up to see her off to school every morning while her mother stayed in bed. The shy girl would run to the bus stop every morning, but 90% of the time she would miss the bus and walk back home so her Daddy could drive her.
He did this for years… through middle school, junior high, and high school until the shy little girl’s blonde hair turned brown and she grew into a more confident girl who bought a car and drove herself to school.
The teenager was very independent and didn’t spend much time with her Daddy anymore. As a matter of fact, they barely spoke. She was fierce about her “adult” status at the age of 16, and she didn’t need any parents telling her what to do. After all, she was an honor roll student and had been working since she was 13 years old. So when she was 18, she left home without a blink or a thought and moved across the country to pursue her dreams. She never knew until later that her father had sat at the kitchen table after she left, and cried. It was the first time he had cried since his mother died more than 20 years earlier.
When the shy girl was away at college, her father often sent her care packages: candies, treats, teddy bears, pictures, and handwritten letters. She called him once in awhile, but not too often. But then a year and a half after she’d left home, she called to see if she could come back for the summer and live at home while she worked. Her father was thrilled to have her back, even for just a little while. A year and a half is so long for a Daddy not to see his little girl.
She came home and stayed for two months. She hadn’t felt close to her father for a long time, but this summer was different. She was truly an adult now, and they would go out for breakfast and sit and talk about grown up things. Oh, she was busy working 2 or 3 jobs, and going out with her friends, but every once in awhile her Dad would ask her to go out for a meal, and she would go. And once or twice, they sat in the living room listening to music together. He always loved music, and sang to her when she was a child, and it made him very happy to see that she had grown up to love music as much as he did.
The shy girl fell in love that summer and got married. She turned 20 and moved out to live with her new husband and stepchildren. Her father told her mother…. “finally, I can relax and know she is taken care of.” And then, just a few weeks later, he died.
He died in his sleep, unexpectedly. A heart attack, they said. The shy girl never got to say goodbye.
It’s been nineteen years this week since my father died. I miss him terribly. I wish I had spent more time getting to really know him. I wish I’d told him more often that I loved him. He loved me so much.. I never really understood. And it makes me terribly sad that next year he will have been dead for half my life, and I am only 39. He never got to see any of his five grandchildren, and never got to know my youngest son who is named after him. And wouldn’t he have adored my daughter, who was born on her grandpa’s birthday, and is the spitting image of that skinny, blonde haired shy little girl.
Hug your Dad today. You just never know. And while I *thought* I wasn’t really that close to my Dad while he was alive, I only love him more each passing year, and I know that no one… NO ONE… has ever loved me as much as he did.
Love you, Dad. I miss you lots.
