It is never easy remembering painful days even if it has happened a long time ago. The pain is still there even though you have moved on. There’s never a moment that I don’t miss my dad. When someone you lost has been a part most of your life you still long for that someone’s presence. Most of my teenage years were with my dad because my mom had to work abroad to help my father make ends meet.

Tomorrow is Father’s day. It will open up painful memories again for we lost our father on this special day but I won’t dwell on those painful memories. Instead, I’ll reminisce the happy times I had with him when I was a child.

When I was a child I usually go to my parent’s bedroom as soon as I woke up. The image of him with bowed head solemnly praying was how I remembered him every morning. He knew I was always in the room because he would lift his head and beckoned me over. We would then pray together.

My sisters and I have a favorite moment with him. When it was our time to go to bed we would always pretend to fall asleep on the sofa so he can carry us one by one to our bedroom. He knew we were pretending but he acquiesced in our whims.

When we lost him I used to dream of him every night. It was always harvesting fruits in our yard with him in the dream. It was what we used to do. It was a joyful moment harvesting the bounties of nature.

His love for nature to a great extent rubbed off on me. I always find comfort whenever I’m under a canopy of trees. He believed in contributing to mother nature by planting fruit-bearing trees. That was how he introduced us to different kinds of fruits.

There was also the memory of my sisters and I were vexed with him. Every year my father harvested the cotton from our Kapok tree or Java cotton tree. It was a tiresome task for us because the fiber of the cotton flying around irritated our nose and a monotonous task for us children who wanted only to play. It usually took days to finish the job but at the end of the day, we realized the importance of our task. We all have the softest new pillow our head can rest every night.

These are the memories I have not shared with my children yet as they came out unbidden while thinking of the topic from dear Richa’s Freedom of Expression challenge. The word Father made it easy for me to remember all of these. Later I’m going to share these beautiful moments with my kids in order to show them what a great father he was.

Happy Father’s day to all dads out there! ❤️