My home was abuzz on June 17. With two fathers around, the day took a festive spirit. Brand new shirts specially gift wrapped with heartwarming messages for the occasion were pulled out of their hiding places. With a freshly baked cake to complement the gifts, we gathered around the dining table to wish the two fathers in the home — my husband and father-in-law — a Happy Father’s Day. No sooner than the cake was cut and wishes were exchanged, my mind raced back in time to cull out all the special moments I had spent with my own dad who left for the other world a year back.

I recalled the days of my childhood when he was my hero. I remembered the gentle support he gave me during the troubled teens and terrible twenties. I recalled his guidance as I gradually matured and entered adulthood. In every one of the roles he played through my life, he was instrumental in my growth and progress. And most of all, I became aware that he had left a wealth of goodness for me to draw from his role as a father.

In the devotion and discipline he followed daily in his personal and professional life, he impressed upon me the importance of such qualities as hard work, integrity, focus, simplicity and spirituality. From his aura he had imparted to me the magic that exists in a smile and the power that is hidden in gentleness. Through his composure, he spoke volumes on the authority of silence. He had lived his life in such self-sufficient detachment that neither praise nor blame interfered with his sense of duty to his family and his profession.  

That Sunday morning, I particularly cherished all the times when his fatherly love embraced and nudged me to seek the good in life.  From these memories, I realised with much joy that this is what Father’s Day is all about.

It is about the celebration of having witnessed a man’s remarkable journey in life as his daughter; it is about the tenderness and warmth of a relationship that lives beyond time and distance; it is about the good influence that a father wields on his daughter through a well-lived life; it is about that closeness and affection to which nothing compares; it is about the many priceless and heart-warming memories left behind by a caring father.

With these thoughts I silently paid a tribute to my late dad thankful for his great life. All too sudden I felt great myself. For, who can deny that there can be no greatness that is not the cause of greatness in others!