Remember this date last last year.....

Remember this date last year 19th December, my Dad's birthday, I wrote a post that I loved, I hope he loved it too.  This year when I need them most, the words won't come.

I give you this post again, every word is from the heart, it can't be bettered, so it will be re-posted.

The Boy in The Red Velvet Suit

Remember last year......the little boy in the red velvet suit......well this year he's EIGHTY.

He's a man that's been through lots of experiences in his life, from being (very briefly) evacuated during the 2nd World War, my Nana couldn't bear to leave him and his sister, so she brought them straight back home!! To doing his National Service and then settling down in civilian life in an office job.

He met and married my Mum in the late fifties and has looked after her and his family ever since.

We presented him (and my Mum) with a great big learning curve when we came to the farm but he just got stuck in. From helping to fill polytunnels, to being chased by giant pigs....he's coped with it all.

And the best thing is he's coped with it all with a great big smile on his face.

At every family 'do' and every restaurant we go to, ours is the noisiest table, full of laughter and happiness, that is why it's so sad I can't be there today to help him celebrate this special day. We are completely snowed in and the roads between here and my Dad are impassable. But the link we share as father and daughter is never impassable, is never ending and can never be broken.

Since the days he came to meet me from brownies and we walked home chatting away, the day he taught me to ride my first two wheeler bike ... I pedalled and pedalled and he said "don't worry I won't let you go"... and then suddenly I looked round and he had let go, way back down the street.  A Dad sure in the knowledge that he had instilled in me enough confidence to carry on, on my own down the street on my bike, and then years later off on my own in the big wide world. 

Everyone deserves a special Dad, and I have mine. I am secure in the person I am because of the way my parents raised me. They are always telling me how proud they are of me, and of the woman I have become. I wouldn't be that woman without them and their love.

I love you Dad, have a wonderful birthday.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

This year he's eighty one, but everything else in this post is just the same, although we're not snowed in and I'm not missing his party, we're spending Christmas Day at theirs as a family instead.

This year although the world outside my window is hard and white with the frost lighting the morning sky in an unnatural way, the love I feel in my heart from my family keeps me warm.

A family is only as strong as the love it shares, we have so much love, so much laughter and in tough, tough times we know we are there for each other.

I love you both Mum and Dad, enjoy this birthday together, keep warm.

Sue xx