I hate Fathers Day, I always have...my parents divorced when I was 8 and within about 4 years my relationship with my dad had pretty much dissolved into nothing...years passed with little or no contact. My dad meant the world to me, he would take us in the back of the van all over Ireland and we would sit and watch him fixing boats or working on someones farming machinery, we had many a memorable holiday in County Wicklow and to this day Powerscourt still gives me a tingle and I feel close to him when I'm there. He raced bikes, fixed bikes and taught us how to ride from we were no height at all. He had a massive heart attack when I was 19, I went to the hospital to see him but didn't know or recognise this man, I found it all very upsetting. When I was 21, I plucked up the courage and rang him, we met up a few times over the years, but there was always a slight awkwardness, I never really felt that he knew the real me. He did however share the same passion for good food and wine as me and we chatted endlessly about Art...he had a huge art collection, mostly Irish artists...we both love J.P. Rooney.
On Wednesday 11th June 2008 I woke with a strange feeling, you know those mornings where everything goes wrong and you just know somethings happened? I eventually got ready for work and rang them whilst walking down the road to say I was running 10 or so minutes late...I wasn't even in work 15 minutes when I got a call from my older brother saying he just heard that dad had a stroke on Monday and was in the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine...after a few minutes of getting myself together and ringing around my other brother and sisters and my mum, I left work and headed home to pack a few things in order to get the next train down home...within half an hour I got a call from my sister that stopped my world....he had passed away.
I never got to say goodbye....
He had just turned 63 on the 7th of June....the funeral was Friday 13th and Fathers Day was on the 15th....not a good week, and the reason I still hate Fathers day!
Id give anything to have one last day with him....or one hour even.
Nanite Daddy, Sweet Dreams xx