Father's Day

My birth father died in a car accident when I was 5 years old. I don't remember him at all and I'm sad because of that, but people who do always tell me he was a friendly person who always had a helping hand and smile.

My mother remarried and I gained a step-father. He had a hard time showing his feelings (look up stoic in the dictionary and there he is) and we had very different interests (his were hockey and baseball, mine were computers and board games), but he always took care of his family and encouraged me to do well in school and go into computer programming where a less understanding parent might have wondered what the use of it all was.

I remember fondly the few times we played chess (he won all but one game), the fall games of touch football with his friends, and downhill skiing in the winter when I was an older teenager.

We were never close but once I left home and started to make my own way in the world our relationship changed from parent and child to father and son. The past decade has seen our relationship grow better and closer than the first 15 years and I'm very happy for that.

Yesterday as I helped him set up a new gate at my grandparent's house I was very proud to be his son. Happy Father's Day, dad.