What happens when you lose the one person who makes you feel anchored, who makes you feel a sense of worth, who makes you feel like you matter? How do you fill that space when suddenly you feel lost and invisible? Although loss is a part of life that eventually we all experience, there is no simple recipe for dealing with it, nor is there a map showing us how to find sources of that which is now missing from our lives. Rather than ache from the emptiness of loss, I will create new memories with my father by allowing everything he brought to my life to influence how I live it each day.

Every day I notice something small that I wouldn’t have if not for my father’s influence. Maybe it is the song I sing to my son at night, or a recipe of his that I now use for my family. No matter what it is, no matter how small, I want to acknowledge it and remind myself to smile when I think of my Daddy rather than cry. I want to write all of it down so that my son can create a picture in his mind of who his grandfather was. In short, this blog is my way of turning grief into pleasant new memories for my son, and keeping my father’s memory alive.

While this blog is dedicated to my own amazing father, I’d like to acknowledge the unsung heroes of the lives of anyone willing to share a story. I hope that you will!