This poem was written in 1982 for my dad when I graduated from high school and was leaving home for the first time.
Where does one begin to thank the most important man in her life? To explain how much one loves her father is a chore in itself. For a father is many things. He must be loving, caring, understanding, and someday, willing to give his best girl to another man. But never does another man ever take away the love one has for her father. For though one does not always say what should be said, or do what should be done, when she does finally say the right words, they come full of meaning straight from the heart. One’s father may not cry too often, but she knows her father is capable of hurt and pain, and that he is not as indestructible as he may claim to be. For one’s father must be strong and able to hold his family together. All of these things must one’s father be. And when one has such a father as this, she will have a father such as this one has.
