My dad loved to fish more
than anything. When I was a young girl,
he often took me fishing, and I vividly remember those quiet summer days spent
together with him so long ago. I can
still feel the gentle rocking of the boat, the lap of the waves and hear our
quiet conversation as I watched my little red bobber with anticipation. How I wish I could spend just one more day
with him in that boat to tell him how much I love him. He was the anchor in my world and when he
left too soon, I felt like my boat was set adrift at the mercy of the winds of
fate.
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| My Dad |
Dad had a calm, kind and
generous nature and was loved by everyone.
He owned a successful heating and plumbing contracting business and a
hardware store that had been started by his father. He ran off and married my beautiful and
troubled mother, who came from the wrong side of the tracks…as the saying goes,
much to the disapproval of his family.
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| Me and Mom |
Over time they accepted her
and she learned to play the part of a woman of means very well. My brother was born first and six years
later, I came home on Christmas Day.
Over the years our lives were
filled with lovely homes, nice cars and dinners at the Country Club. I truly had a fairy tale childhood in most
respects. But there was an underlying
sense of unease in our house that became more obvious as the years went
by. My mom was often fun and full of
adventurous plans and ideas, but more and more seemed to find life
overwhelming. She often struggled with
depression and hypochondria as she battled with her own personal demons. As far as I know, she never shared her dark
secrets with anyone, but I sensed that darkness the few times she spoke of her
own father. My brother was wild and fun
but also became more out of control as time went by. No matter what though, I always felt a sense
of safety and security because of my dad.
His unfailingly, quiet, steady and supportive presence seemed to keep our
world in balance.
When my first son, David was
6 years old, my dad started taking him fishing. By then he had his dream boat moored at a
marina on Lake Michigan and his greatest joy was to take off from work for the
afternoon and go fishing. My mom loved
butterflies and so the boat was named Papillon, which is French for butterfly.
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| David and Dad |
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| Davids' First Big Catch! |
David and my dad had a
special relationship and spent many happy hours fishing together until my dad
became ill. He developed heart problems
and then leukemia. I guess we all
thought he was invincible and that his steady presence would be with us much
longer. He left us at the age of 65, when I was 36 years
old and David was 14. In many ways, he
was the glue that held us all together and the great unraveling of my world
began then. But that story will have to wait
for another time.
David is 43 years old now,
has a family of his own and still loves to fish. They were all on their way up north last
summer where he planned to take his two boys fishing for the first time. Much to his shock and joy, they passed a very
familiar boat on the highway and there was no mistaking that it was my dads’
Papillon. What were the chances of his
boat still being seaworthy so many years later and of my son seeing it on his
special trip? I can’t even begin to
guess. I’d like to believe that it was
my dads’ way of sending his love and letting us know that he is still our
anchor.
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| Dads' Papillon Still Catching Fish! |
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