Remembering My Dad on Fathers' Day

  Today is Fathers' Day. It used to be a special day for us when we could take my dad out for dinner and spend sometime with him. Unfortunately, we could no longer do that. I would like to remember my dad with my memory of our last meeting before he passed away a few years ago.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The phone rang at 6:55a.m. ; right away I knew that something was wrong. I heard the tone in my husband's voice as he answered the call. My father passed away this morning! It was from my mother who hang up before I could get out from the bathroom.

It was a sense of shock. How could it be? We just saw him yesterday and spent nearly the whole day with him. As I raced to my parents' house in my car, I kept seeing my dad's face in my mind...

My dad was standing beside my mom, leaning on the railing on the porch waiting for us to pick them up for church yesterday morning. We got back from our Asian trip on late Friday evening; and we went to a banquet on Saturday evening for Ainta's birthday. Stan and I didn't even have time to adjust to the North American time when we got up a little later than we planned. We were almost 25 minutes late getting to my parents' house. My dad was clearly upset at us being late and he did not hesitate to let us know how he felt. We apologized profusely and got them to our church in no time at all.

That Sunday was the Summer Camp Sunday when children from the summer camp performed. I was asked to go the stage to talk about the project and introduced the staff and the program.
That was the last time my dad saw me giving a speech.

After church we took dad and mom to for lunch at his favourite restaurant. We talked and I told him all about my trip to China. He was very proud of me and again he lecture Sta on how to be a good dad to Jonathan and Er. He was loud and clear and he sounded good. How to be a good dad and be a role model to our kids; that was the last advice my dad gave to Sta and me.

After lunch, we took my parents grocery shopping. We did not want him to be walking too far, so Stan went to pick up the car while we waited. My dad was again leaning on a pillar and coughing a little. Seeing him in that fragile state, I held his hand and gave him a big hug and asked him how he felt. He replied gesturing under his throat" I can't breathe too well lately. I don't think I can last too long." To which I replied, " Don't say that, dad."

I held my father's hand and went into Stan's car and drove to a super Chinese grocery store. Not wishing my dad to wait for a long time and be bored, we bought him a newspaper and found a nice place for him to sit at the cafe for his tea. He enjoyed himself reading the newspaper while my mom and I went grocery shopping in the other part of the store. I kept looking over at him to make sure that he was fine. He was and Stan later also joined him there at the cafe.

We were at the store for about 45 minutes and we drove my parents home after the shopping was done. My dad , as usual, took his time and got out of the car gingerly. I went out of the car, give him a hug and kissed him on his cheek. He smiled, waved at me and went up the stairs to his house. That was the last hug and kiss I gave my father.

As I was recounting the last two times I saw my father, I was grateful that God gave me the opportunity to see him twice, on Saturday and again on Sunday right after we came back from our trip. I am immensely grateful that I got to see before he passed away. I am very sad that my father is gone now. I and the rest of our family will miss him dearly- his sense of humour, his love of sports, his eagerness to tell jokes and stories had delighted us and his grandchildren alike. But one thing we are glad - he believed in Jesus and he has eternal life and is now in heaven through eternity.

R.T.
Toronto