This Guy...

...I love this guy. Today is his birthday; he would have been 63.



The above picture is from 1976, when he was almost the age I am today. It's so sweet to think we were, at one time, the same age. I know how silly that sounds... but it's been my experience that losing a parent makes the parent more of a person and less of an authority/guardian figure in my mind. When I look at old pictures of him, I don't see the dad who worked his ass off to give us a good life or the dad who was so strict about curfew.

I see a guy, you know, just a young guy who has the exact same chin as me. The steadfast, meticulous Virgo whose interests then were so similar to mine now. Little things like that, things like noticing how similar our jawlines are, were not something I ever took notice of when he was alive. Or if I did notice, it didn't affect me. In this photo, I am amazed to the point of obsessing over how we have the exact same ears. Photos of lost loved ones not only make them more human to me, but also make me more human to myself.

Happy 63rd, Dadders. I love you.

Note: I wrote these words a couple years ago. I felt the need to post them again, as my sentiments have not only not changed, but have grown even stronger.