RHYS BOWEN: I had a completely different post planned for today until I realized it was Father's Day. It's something we've never celebrated because it didn't exist in England and John has always maintained that it is a fabricated holiday designed to make people spend money. The kids will send him cards, I expect, apart from Dominic who will be on a Greek island. But we don't do the big meal that we do for Mother's Day.
As I said,we didn't celebrate it in England but I would have liked a day to celebrate my dad because he was an all around good guy. He was kind, soft spoken, generous. He adored my mother and would have walked through fire for her. They did everything together, including the supermarket shop at weekends. he visited his mother every Friday. The absolute family man. We talked about picnics the other day.. during the summer we went out as a family, usually to the seaside and would have a picnic along the way. When we were older we played tennis or swam. Memories of him often involve beaches. My dad loved to be on the beach with the kids. We'd play cricket or some kind of ball game. He'd build sand castles for us, on in my brother's case, a sand racing car in which my brother sat.
One summer vacation we were in Wales. the weather was awful--cold, rainy, windy. He and I made a bet to swim in the sea every day. We'd drive the car onto the hard sand of the beach, park near the waves, dash in, swim up and down, dash out and jump back in the car. All the time laughing and shivering. We did it.
I didn't meet him until I was three. He was sent out to North Africa before i was born and after Rommel was defeated he was sent on to Palestine as the British occupying force until after the war. He often talked about it and was proud of the small part he played.
Other memories were of his generosity. I had seen a necklace I loved in a store and when I was visiting at home I asked if I could have it for my birthday (which was a few months away). As my dad drove me to the train station he handed me some pound notes. "Go and buy your necklace," he said
Every Christmas he put four pairs of nylon stockings on the tree for my mom. boring but practical. One Christmas she got the same four pairs, but with a gold Swiss watch inside.
He was a research engineer by profession, self educated as he grew up in the depression, but he held several patents by the end of his life. Always practical and busy. He ran a paper factory and their sister factory made wallpaper. So our house was the trial for new wallpapers. When one room was finished we started on another, all different and often rather lurid wallpapers. He loved tinkering with his car and it always ran perfectly.
He was incredibly social and friendly. When one of his workers got terminal cancer Daddy visited him in hospital every evening on his way home. When they moved to Australia after he retired they took the cross country journey on the train--3000 miles from Sydney to Perth. By the end of that trip Daddy knew every person on that train and their history.
Later in life he loved his garden. They moved to Australia when he retired and he grew wonderful things in that climate. All their own vegetables and fruit. Every afternoon they'd take a picnic to a nearby beach. I visited several times, enjoying the incredible beauty of the place they had chosen. He had a major heart attack at 65 and after that his heart grew weaker until it stopped beating. I flew out when I got the call that he was in hospital and not expected to survive and arrived three hours too late to say goodbye to him. I've always regretted that.
Now please share memories of your dads and let's raise a glass to them all today!
