People Are Sharing Their Best-Ever Memories With Their Dads, And All Of These Stories Made My Heart Swell
"He played all the old rock music he grew up with, and we'd have long conversations."
"He died of cancer in 2016. One of the best memories I'll always carry with me is he would stay up to gossip after every show. I'd tell him everything. Sometimes if he felt up to it, we would get late-night IHOP. Being able to be open and honest with my dad kept me safe and kept my relationships with others healthy."
—Anonymous
—Anonymous
—Anonymous
"He walked me down the aisle, he carried the coffins of both of my sons, and he was more than I could have asked for. He passed coming up a year ago now and I still can't process he has actually gone."
"The problem was, there was no entrance on that side of the house — just windows. We had to exit on the other side of the house and walk around it to get to the pool, and we did this for months. It was inconvenient, particularly when BBQing, and with two little kids, the onus was clearly on Mom to get a lot of steps in. One day, Mom was heading out to go grocery shopping. Dad asked if there was anything he could do while she was gone. She said, shortly, 'Yes. Put a door on that side of the house.'
"Well, I never saw anything appear as fast as that chainsaw! By the time the station wagon left the driveway, Dad was ripping through the wall. By the time Mom returned, the whole wall was gone, framing and all. She was shocked that he took her direction so literally! By nightfall, the framing was rebuilt, and the door was installed. Dad finished the rest of the work over the next few days. Despite the mess that needed to be cleaned up, we were all relieved by the new door and it served us well for many years."
—Anonymous
"He'd try and embarrass me by yelling out that he loved me, or calling me Sammie (a nickname) or something when he dropped me off. I loved it. my younger sister didn't talk to him as much on their morning drives after I went off to college and I remember him being upset about that. It was nice to know he also cherished that time together."
"We don't speak now, so thinking back to those days is hard. He was always there for me and because of some petty family drama, it's all just memories. Fond, but sad, memories."
"My mother, on the other hand, takes it as a personal failing of hers that I do not prioritize marriage. Also, the family knew we were in for a treat whenever he was in the kitchen — which was often."
"On the morning of July 9th, 1967 we were walking from our house to my grandparents'. [Their] house [was] about a mile away in the valley where the railway line ran. In the mist of that morning, we saw two X class locomotives, heading south.
"I had never before seen such excitement from my father. [When we got to the house,] he was telling my grandparents excitedly about what we had seen, and very quickly we went home, telling everyone we saw. When we got there he got straight on the phone to the local station to find out what [trains] they were.
"They belonged to a famous painter, David Shepherd. [They were being] moved to Liss in Hampshire (for what turned out to be a very ill-fated preservation scheme) and had to be moved that day as that was the final day it would be allowed.
"There are many memories I have, but that is one of the earliest and a favorite as I seldom ever saw him break his serious character quite so completely again."
—Anonymous
"It didn't always work, so I began reading street signs, billboards, and things like that. He would laugh whenever I would say something I probably shouldn't have, but also didn't understand. His favorite one was going past a strip club, and me yelling, 'Daddy! It's a place for Mommy to go! It just says Girls! Girls! Girls!'""
—Anonymous
"My dad has always given so much of himself and his time to make sure I was happy, which I appreciate even more now that I'm older and I look back at the very bad times I experienced living with my step-dad."
"I asked him what was up, but he just gestured at me to sit down. I did so, and he promptly began reciting a rap of his own making. It was all about how he had the coolest daughter ever and how he loved her, whenever, whatever. ('My name is Glen, I have the coolest daughter ever, yeah you gotta know I love her whenever, whatever!' Actual line.) After he finished, I gave him a big round of applause and a hug, and he quietly said, 'We’re both rappers now, so you can talk to me about it whenever.' I love my dad."
—Anonymous
"He loved to make them spontaneous: often, we'd spread a paper map out and choose the next destination at random. He played all the old rock music he grew up with, and we'd have long conversations about his childhood in the Midwest, his life in the military, and all of my dreams and interests. That sweet man would listen to me wax on about stuff like the Animorphs books for hours, asking questions about my favorite characters and plotlines. We traveled to multiple states, tourist traps, roadside diners, zoos, and amusement parks, and it was our time to catch up on each other's lives and reconnect.
"For a nerdy kid who often felt like an afterthought in her mom and brothers' lives, it meant the world. Into adulthood, I kept a box full of postcards and mementos of those trips, and when my dad passed around ten years ago and we cleaned out his apartment, I was floored to find that he'd kept one too. Miss you, dad. You were a prince among men."
—Anonymous