My Dad Loved Me
Sunday, June 15th, 2008Fathers’ Day. This is always a hard one for me, I’m always happy to see it go.
Today we will visit Brian’s father. I am grateful for him. He invented the lightweight acoustic bass I play. He raised my wonderful husband and is an accepting and loving man, but he is not my father.
My father died when I was 14, and he was 40. It was just a tragedy all the way around. I still think of him nearly every day.
Daddio taught me to sing harmony. I remember exactly where we sat, what the room looked like, the deep blue carpet and his modern reclining chair with ottoman, the fireplace right there, the book (a hymnal…Â the perfect book for teaching harmony).
He had us both sing the melody together. He had us both sing the harmony together. Then he told me to sing the harmony line and he intended to sing the melody. As a young girl would do, I followed his voice and sang melody with him.
So he stopped and tried again. He changed gears and told me to sing the melody, and no matter what he did, to ignore him and keep singing the melody. So we tried again and he sang harmony with me. It was wonderful. My world changed. Magic entered my life at that moment.
Then he sang the melody and I sang the harmony. And my life is much better because of my ability to create harmony. It is second nature to me now, absolutely part of my being.
I sang with Brian two hours last night at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (this photo is from 2005, same place). I sometimes sang lead, sometimes harmony. Sometimes we whistled together in harmony as well.
Daddy is still alive in my life. I miss you, Daddio.