11 Comments

A wonderfully written article. My understanding definitely changed when I got older and became a father myself. Like you mentioned, it requires us to reach a certain maturity before we can fully grasp the magnitude of what fatherhood means. My dad became a softie when grandkids entered the picture, and I'm sure I'll be same 😁

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Wow...this was too much for me to fully read. I lost my father very suddenly (from a heart attack) when he was 54 and I was 17, just starting my senior year of high school. I lost my entire world when I lost my father. We were very close, and he was so good to me. I wish I could have known him when he grew old.

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Thank you for this, Jan. The Sharon Olds poem is wonderful. I also had a different kind of father. Not, thankfully, a mean, abusive one. But rather a gentle, somewhat cowed man who was not at all larger than life.

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