The Observer Newspapers | Talk to Your Father Today

June 13, 2008

Talk to Your Father Today

To the editor:

I have never thought too much about Father's Day; just felt it was another Hallmark day. But now, after having reached a certain benchmark, I started thinking about my father.

He died at 48, before I was 5 years old. I can't remember him much—maybe some little vignette—but then I don't know whether that's something I really experienced or something someone has told me.

He was the oldest of 10 children. I would have liked very much to be able to ask what life was like for him growing up. What drove him to go to school and become a forest manager like his father rather than stay and work as a lumber jack. I would have liked to ask him what made him fall in love with my mother.

I hope that you who still have your fathers to talk to make an effort to ask questions about their lives, because I'm certain that one day you'll say to yourselves: "I wish I had asked Dad about that."

Ruth Tatlock

Herndon