Quick Monday Memory
My last Christmas with my dad, December of 2006, I was living at home.
Life was sucking hardcore, and I was reclusive and sullen. I was stressed about work, and depressed that I was single.
Because I had asked for one big present, a Motorola Pebl phone, I didn't have many other presents under the tree. A few were obviously DVDs.
My dad took me aside a week or two before Christmas and said, "I can tell you're feeling down. Why don't you open one of your presents early?" and handed me a thin, rectangular one.
When I opened it, he said that it was one of his favourite movies, and he'd love to watch it with me.
Something you have to know about Mormons is that they are told not to watch "R" rated movies. Whether they actually do or not is their own business, but my dad didn't.
He made an exception that night for The Bird Cage, in which Robin Williams and Nathan Lane play a gay couple who own a Cabaret. It is a heartwarming, uproariously funny comedy. You should see it.
Oh, how we laughed.
It didn't make everything "all better", but it brought much-needed levity and reminded me how much my dad loved me.
It sounds like a simple thing, watching an "R" rated movie as father and daughter, but -knowing my father's feelings about such things- it meant the world to me. He was showing me, in his own way, that he still loved his lesbian daughter.
I love you too, Dad.