Today, I’m participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, and I chose this prompt:
2. Something that made you smile this week.
Every Friday evening, Motor Man, his mom, Marshall and I have a mother-son double date. We usually either go to Outback or Cracker Barrel. Last Friday evening, we went to Outback.
Soon after we were seated, a couple came in and were seated across the aisle from us. But this wasn’t an ordinary couple. This was a dad and his daughter. She looked to be around 10 years old.
Dad had brought her to Outback to celebrate Valentine’s Day. My first clue was that he carried a single long-stemmed rose, wrapped as from a florist.
He was dressed not in jeans, but casual slacks and a dress shirt. His daughter was wearing a dress, boots and tiny (age appropriate) dangling earrings.
Dad soon helped her off with her sweater, and took a couple of pictures of her with his cell phone. I contemplated going over to ask if I could take a photo of them together, then decided that’s what I should do.
He was very appreciative. I took a couple of pictures of them, and he thanked me several times.
After I was seated back at our booth, Dad took a picture of her holding her rose. Then he gave her a Valentine card.
Thankfully, the dad had his back to us, so he couldn’t see me watching them, smiling and thinking what a wonderful, loving, attentive father he must be.
My dad died before I knew him. And, although my mom easily gave me the love of two people, there have been many times through the years that I longed to have a dad in my life.
That feeling isn’t nearly as strong as it was when I was a child, but, seeing that dad with his little girl Friday evening brought back that longing….just for a little while.
~These Days Of Mine~
