A Word Hug For My Dad

“Hug your reader with your words.” That’s what Cec Murphey said.

Hug your dad with your words. That’s what the quiet voice in my head echoed back to me.

My dad is not a hugger. Actually, I’m not a hugger by nature either. I trained myself to be okay with people entering my very large personal space bubble.

Hugging may not come naturally to me, but words do.  From my mouth they often lack, but from my fingertips they flow.

My dad is scheduled to have triple bypass surgery this week. Like chest wide open and mess with the most important organ in his body kind of surgery. I know it’s a common one these days, and for the most part, I’m not overly concerned about it. I am pretty certain my dad will be out golfing with the grandkids by the end of the summer.

But the little girl in me is a bit fearful. I don’t want to see the “frail” part of my dad. He is the guy who builds treehouses, replaces roofs and fixes broken things. He can’t be the guy whose heart needs to be fixed.

But he is.

So before he goes under the knife I am going to share this little story. A word hug for my dad.

“You know, you kind of married your dad.” Corey slipped that statement in while we were talking about some crazy remodeling project.

I think I replied something like, “What?!? You are a weirdo!” and elbowed him hard in the gut. (It’s my go-to way of causing my husband mild physical pain 😉 )

“Well, he knows how to fix things, and I know how to fix things. He builds things. I build things. He doesn’t like to be around crowds of people. I don’t like to be around crowds of people…”

“Okay, Okay, I get it. I kind of married my dad.”

Unlike Corey, Dad doesn’t play the guitar, and I can’t remember him singing any song – except for There’s A Hole In the Bottom of the Sea to make me laugh when I was little. He doesn’t lift weights. He doesn’t go backpacking. And I’m positive he has no idea how to play Clash of Clans.

But though I can name many differences, the commonalities are undoubtedly there. In addition to those Corey named,  my dad is a wise money manager, he’s one of the hardest workers and honest men I know and he always squeezed money out of the budget to take his family on fantastic memory making vacations.

So yes, Corey, I guess maybe I did kind of marry my dad.

And Dad, if you are reading this, please take that as a high compliment. Because I’ve been married to Corey for 15 years and still wonder how I got such an amazing guy.