Happy Birthday

Today is my dad’s birthday. Another year, another letter. I still miss him but on this third year I’ve begun to feel that it has been like this forever. Living with him in my heart and soul but not in physical presence. I have started to remember him just as he was and not the rosy picture of him in pedestal. When he passed away and years afterward I can only remember his good deeds. I can only picture him as the perfect dad, the perfect mentor, the perfect man. I couldn’t remember his flaws, his limitation, or his humanity. To me he was perfect.
When I re read my blog I notice that throughout the years after he passed away, I’ve always wrote about how much I love him, how much I miss him, and most of all how much I look up to him. I wrote about how he imparted his wisdom to me, about how he seemed to know the answer to all questions, how indulgence he was to us and how he taught me so many stuff during his living years.
I never wrote how he hardly display any sign of affection when I was growing up. I never wrote about how he very seldom praised me. I never wrote how it took me years to finally realize that he did love me and he was proud of me despite of his lack of display of affection. And then of course there’s the physiological that he was my step dad.
But you know what, I don’t care. I love him all the same. Yes, he was not perfect. Yes, he had his flaws. But it doesn’t change the fact that I love him very much and not a day had pass that I don’t think of him.
Happy birthday, daddy.