75

You would have been 75 years young today, Dad.  Every year, the weeks leading up to your birthday make the ache in my heart a little stronger.  I hope there's a party going on right now in Heaven to celebrate the amazing person that you were.  You were nothing short of wonderful to me.  You taught me so much.  I owe so much to you.... Thank you for guiding me, and shaping me into the person that I am today.  I hope I made you proud.

Since memories fade, and they're all I have of you now, I wanted to recount a few more here, in celebration of you, on your special day:

-sitting on your lap with a bowl of Bits & Bites.  I never liked the cheese cracker bits, so I'd give them to you, and you'd suck them up like a vacuum, and I'd giggle every time.
-surprising me one winter day by coming to my kindergarten class and asking Mrs. MacRae to let me out early so we could go on a 'date'.  We headed to the Rideau Canal where the ice sculptures were. Winterlude was over, and it was just the two of us and your camera.  I have to go find those pictures.  I don't think you're in any of them, sadly.
-the scent of your cologne and the shine of your face after a bath and a fresh shave.  I'd come home from work or being out, to greet you in your chair in the living room, and bend over to kiss your forehead from above.  The smell wasn't overpowering (though sometimes I wonder how it wasn't, being Aqua Velva or Brut, and all!), it was comforting.  The lighthouse blanket used to smell like you.  It doesn't anymore :(.
-those crazy eyebrows of yours.  They stayed so black while your hair went so grey.  Every now and then there'd be a rogue hair that was stuck way out of place and I'd pluck it. You never complained.
-some girls might have thought it weird that their father would ask them to shave their neck.  I didn't mind it though.  I don't think I ever cut you once.  Even with that ancient old razor you used with the Wilkinson Sword blades.
-You must have been a very hard worker - immersing yourself completely in your job at the office. On more than one occasion you started small talk with me as I called your office after waiting impatiently for you to pick me up out front of Main building.  It would go something like this:  you: "Head Material Control Officer, Fred Manuel"...me: "Hi Dad..."....you: "Oh hi Amber, how's it going today?"... me: "Um...aren't your forgetting something??".....you: "Oh! Shit! I'm sorry! I'll be right there!".  You'd look like the cat that swallowed the canary when you got there.
-your smile.  Your eyes twinkled, and you commanded a room (Mom always said it was your Navy arrogance).  Everyone who met you, loved you.
-your hugs.  The biggest, warmest bear hugs ever.  You'd squeeze so tight and hang on just a little longer than most.

God I miss you.................