for my father on his 70th birthday

Congratulations Dad, you made it. I am so proud of you. I think a child's idea of their parent's life is mostly a mythology of stories and hearsay. I imagine you, stoned, listening to Jimmy Hendrix in Victoria at my age, building your first house on Mayne Island a few years later, living in New Jersey as a teenager terrified your new friends were going to steal a car, being followed by the police in Franco's Spain for picking up a Basque hitch-hiker, crying when I was born because I wasn't breathing, these are the stories of yours I've woven together to create an impression of the you that was before me. I know your life has had it's share of struggles. I was there for at least some of them, which is why it makes me so happy to see you here, at this point in your life with a sense of calm; with a sense of contentment.

Thank you for always been there for me and for continuing to be there. Thank you for moving all my things back and forth and back and forth across Vancouver more times than I care to count. Thank you for always having a bed for me to sleep in, no matter where you were. Thank you for buying me groceries when my fridge was empty. Thank you for paying my phone bill when I couldn't. Thank you for telling that asshole that you'd smash his head through a wall if he ever came near me again when I was seventeen. For the record, he never did. Thank you for driving me to school. Thank you for picking me up. Thank you for watching movies with me even when you were sad. Thank you for making the best popcorn. Thank you for helping me run away when I was four. Thank you for rubbing my back and making me hot lemonaid when I was sick. Thank you for driving me to my high school graduation because we both agreed taking a limo was dumb. Thank you for supporting me no matter what decide to do with my life. Thank you for believing in my strength and integrity. Thank you for loving my child and being a wonderful, caring grandfather.

I could go on, dad, the list of things I'm grateful to you for is long and varied, but I'll leave it at that. I am to lucky to have a father whose advice I value and can trust. I think it's taken a while for me to be able to ask, but now that I can, it is a resource I treasure and rely on.

Happy birthday dad, I am so happy I came to live at your house.

Love,

Jocelyn Elizabeth Coburn