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A Father’s Day Without A Father
A day of redemption
Today is a solemn anniversary for me, it’s the first Father’s Day without my father. He passed away suddenly from lagging Covid and ill health effects last November, and I miss him.
I’ve spent a lot of time in reflection since my father’s death, about our relationship as father and son. We had the best relationship right before he passed but it wasn’t always that way when I was younger.
I resented my father when I was a young boy and teenager. While other fathers took their sons out to ball games or went camping with them, my father was never around much. He always worked overtime and any free time he had, he ended up down at the bar.
The times when we did do something together, like going deep sea fishing, were memorable times for me. I still remember them vividly today, probably because I was so starved for his affection. I hope he remembered those times as well.
In his way, he did try to find some common ground between me and him as I got older. He tried to teach me how to fix cars but his patience was always so short and his temper was explosive. I just shied away from that and did my own thing after a few failed attempts.
When I turned 16 I got a job pumping gas at a gas station where he fixed cars part-time. I got to see my…
