Member-only story
Daddy Issues Resolved — Fourth Quarter Begins pg281–282
Colorful companion to my memoir The Incompetent Psychic
Next was a memorial card. I went through collections of family photos. I hadn’t looked at my parent’s wedding album for ages, and there was a large black & white photo I’d never noticed. It was a close-up of them leaving the church in a flurry of rice. Joan was smiling at the camera, while Roy was smiling at her with an expression of abiding love. He looked incredulous and exalted that such a wonderful woman had just married him.
While adjusting and cropping photographs, I had been playing iTunes choices for the memorial service. Their favorite musical was Brigadoon, and the soundtrack was playing. While again trying to parse the sweetest expression I had ever seen on Roy’s face, a rich, deep voice started singing from my computer. The lyrics described a grey man walking alone by a cold ocean. Without true love, he would be that man.
“There but for you go I,” this beautiful baritone sang with powerful conviction. Between the photo and that song the entire emotional focus of my father’s life became clear. It was his love for Joan. Roy’s mother had been an ignorant beast of burden, and Grampa was an intolerant, humorless disciplinarian with a mean streak. My father had no guidelines for parenting — but he could love and care for one woman.
