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Dear Daddy,
How are you feeling? I'm sure you're here with us in some form. We're all here filling our hearts with you. Enjoying our precious memories of how you touched all of our lives in so many ways. Filling our senses with your presence.
I want to thank you for being the man that you were to us. The strengths you showed and hopefully passed on to us. Your sense of humor. Your matter-of-fact way of dealing with the "situation of the day," Your light-hearted grand-fatherly ways.
You were a large man, in every sense of the word. Large hearted with a laugh that filled the room and enveloped those around you. Your never-ending generosity. Going the extra mile for those you unselectively deemed deserving.
As a father you could be compared to none. Your kindnesses knew no end. I'm sure you got more than you bargained for on many occasions from each of us. But somehow you faced the surprises that came with fatherhood with a sort of stoic grace.
One of the traits of yours I've always been proudest to inherit was your unabashed sentimentality. I enjoyed as you did heartwarming poetry, old movies, and a hot cup of cocoa on a cold winters day. I secretly liked that Mommy always called us "schmaltzy." This leading up to a short passage you wrote one recent Christmas, "The sap of the day."
The sap of the day
The sap of the day
What it is.
It is the smell of evergreen,
of cakes and candies.
The coming together of loved ones
Not seen for time,
The coming together of those
No longer with us.It is years compressed
To the moment of now:
The future, the present,
The past.It is the remembrance of love,
The pain of ritual.
Mama wrapping packages
We couldn't afford.
The tree being cut from the hill,
Drug to the house,
Mounted on an unsteady stand
And clothed in garments of tradition.It is the sharing of time, food and things.
It is the time when fragile love
is renewed.
It is also a time of pain, of fear,
and of aloneness.
A time when many reach out to be touched
By a sense of community
That is both illusion and reality.-- By Bud Rue
Daddy, the truly "Sap of the day" is you. It is me. It is, largely because of you, all of us here.
Please, Daddy, always know in your heart of hearts how much your love and many ways you gave to us meant to all of us. We are all the better because of you.
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