When I was only 13 months old my father tragically passed away. I never did miss having a father – you don’t miss what you have never had. When I was 3 years old and at nursery school, the teacher rang my mother at work. She was in a state of panic, “Mrs. Denton, we are making Father’s Day cards and presents today. What do we do with Dawn?”
“She can make them for me,” mom said.
From that Father’s Day, for the next 40 years, mom got a card.
Since my mother passed away in 2014, Father’s Day has become a day to celebrate my mother for doing such an amazing job of being both my parents. I never felt different, I never felt deprived, I never felt like I had missed out or that my life was less full because I didn’t have a father…all because my mother filled both sets of shoes with so much love and laughter.
To all those who did have a father in your life – celebrate the privilege, the love, the life, the man; and celebrate the role he played in making you as wonderful as you are today, no matter what your relationship with him.
Without him you would not be you!
