Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Re-Instalment

The people demanded it and now the people have got it. Bailey’s blog of musings is back. For my re-instalment though, I will be venturing slightly off my normal formula to speak about something a little closer to me.  As many of you will already know, I lost my Dad a touch over a month ago now.  It’s the first time in my life really that I have had to deal with the loss of someone so close to me. It’s a very strange thing.

I gained a lot of things from my father. These big broad shoulders that send the ladies swooning being one. My inability to grow any hair on the top of my head (which, conversely, sends the ladies running) is another.  More than that though, he has helped to shape the person that I am. We all carry so much of our loved ones inside us. They have helped to shape the way we act, think and feel in many situations. To that end, they live on in us all.

When I was younger Dad would take me and my little sister on what we called “bike adventures”. We would jump on our bikes and take off to destinations unknown.  In reality, the longest  we would go would be the sandhills which were only a couple of blocks away but to me and my sister, we were crossing oceans, climbing mountains and overcoming all other manner of obstacles on the way. Despite the “dangers” we faced I don’t ever remember feeling scared and that was because Dad was there to look after us. Indeed, on one adventure, he even saved me from a horse I was patting that decided to bite me, by delivering a short straight right hand into the horse’s jaw. I escaped with little more than some teeth marks. He would always be there to look after us and protect us.

I’m now a fully grown and slightly mature man who is more than capable of punching a gift horse in the mouth himself but losing dad does send me back a little to that child, long ago, who would look to him for guidance and protection. I guess it’s just the knowledge that he isn’t there anymore, in person, if I need him but like I said above, I know that part of him is still there inside me. He doesn’t die when he leaves this earth; he only dies when we all go - everyone that he has touched in this world he has left his little mark on them, however insignificant, and helped to shape the person they are.

Dad you will be always loved and never forgotten.

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