Dear Dad

Mar 18

Dear Dad,

It’s been a bit of a crazy year so far. Things have gotten out of hand on the coffee front (5 a day keeps the anxiety away), and the conservatives are bearing down with their revived leader. Come to think of it, you’d probably vote that way, so best we stay away from politics for now.

How is Mum? It’s nice to see you both on the family group chats, with that lovely angle of your chin and all the nose hairs, but maybe a less visual update would make me more nostalgic for home. Not that we need that. Home and the water have been calling and I’m persistently ignoring them. Speaking of which, Minna has been doing swimming lessons and now we can trust her not to drown around deep puddles and the like. Except she mischievously jumps in all the ones that happen to be right next to me while I’m wearing white. I think she gets that from her grandpa.

Currently, she’s doing a fashion show for her papa. We went shopping today because all her clothes have holes in them. She’s been falling over a lot, which reminds me of when I used to play netball every Saturday. The coach used to say “It isn’t a game until Naomi falls over.” Well, my kid has my genes. It was only yesterday she literally scootered right into the curb at full speed with no thought for what may happen and careened over her handlebars. Both Glyn and I were expecting a scream, but she’s fallen over so much lately that she got up, shrugged off the embarrassment without making eye contact with much at all, and started up again.

Got big plans for your birthday? Perhaps you plan to stay up past 10 pm? Or a visit to a steakhouse? Maybe you’ll splash out and do both! I think for my birthday I’m going to be hosting an event at church, so I’ll make sure there’s cake and hopefully no one wants to sing at me, just for a real treat. I might also splash out and buy a sixth coffee that day.

I hope the family is doing well. We’ve been in touch with Ben quite a bit since he visited. He talked about you most of the time, and for the rest of it, we argued about Christianity. I would call it discussion but most people around us would say we were rabidly fighting to the death. You know, our usual family Sunday lunch conversation over tuna casserole and scones. I wouldn’t mind never tasting that casserole again.

Miss you a lot. Funny how we don’t say that over the phone. But there it is. There are a few people in my life who would give a kidney to be able to say that to their dad a couple more times. So I wanted to say it now.

Miss Mum, too. I think it’s the comforting presence in the corner chuckling at something the rest of us would roll our eyes at.

I don’t miss the tuna casserole. And why did it have peas?

Best,

Naomi