It was seven years ago we lost my father. It was an unimaginable loss, I thought I would never recover from. Not a day goes by without thinking of him. I am no longer sad about losing him, as much as I am happy for having him been in my life. He loved me unconditionally, he was my hero and my biggest fan.
If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have my daughter Serenity. If you don’t know the story, let me fill you in…
I was working at Perkins and my POS firebird had broken down because that’s what they do. I was in between cars, this is right before I got my Neon, and My dad was picking me up from work because anytime I ever needed any help, he was there. While I was finishing up work he was waiting in the lobby, and he saw a beautiful young hostess and struck up a conversation with her with I think the intention of being a matchmaker. That hostess was Heather. He told her all about me selling me to her better than any used car salesman could, meanwhile even though she was my coworker, she was new and had no idea who my dad was talking about. That may have been the first time she met me, how I met her is another story. When I was finally clocking out, Heather told me what my dad had done, and normally, a child would be embarrassed about his dad trying to fix him up, one look at her, and I wasn’t embarrassed as much as grateful. Fast forward a few months later, and Heather and I started on an eight-year adventure that was the best time of my life.
One of the nights I spent with my dad in hospice, we talked about the joy I brought him, and how I couldn’t possibly understand the joy of being a parent until I was one. He wanted me to marry Heather and have a child before he died, his illness made that impossible. He joked about us getting married in the chapel there and using his and my mom’s rings. Now that I think about it, he may not have been kidding. The joke became that Heather and I were in an arranged marriage, in some ways it was. I was grateful for his help. A while after his passing and after being married, I decided to take his advice and we decided to try for a baby. I understood the joy my dad Albert Lewis Burdge was talking about from the moment I saw the top of Serenity’s head and every day after. Absolutely Heather did the hard work of growing the human and giving me my Serenity, but what if my dad sitting on those uncomfortable wooden slat lobby benches in that building that smells like fryer grease and mold hadn’t had the thought “She’s a beautiful girl, she would make a good wife for my Albie, I should go talk to her”
Life isn’t about the big things it’s the little things that add up and make us who we are. Thank you, Dad, for always being there for me, loving me, looking out for me, showing me by example, how to be an amazing father, and being the ultimate wing man. I love you.
