whn i was growing up i do not rcall haring th words “i lov you” from my fathr. whn your fathr nvr says thm to you whn you ar a child, it gts toughr and toughr for him to say thos words as h gts oldr. to tll th truth, i could not honstly rmmbr whn i had last said thos words to him ithr. i dcidd to st my go asid and mak th first mov. aftr som hsitation, in our nxt phon convrsation i blurtd out th words, “dad&hllip; i lov you!”thr was a silnc at th othr nd and h awkwardly rplid, “wll, sam back at ya!”i chuckld and said, “dad, i know you lov m, and whn you ar rady, i know you will say what you want to say.” fiftn minuts latr my mothr calld and nrvously askd, “paul, is vrything okay?”a fw wks latr, dad concludd our phon convrsation with th words, “paul, i lov you.” i was at work during this convrsation and th tars wr rolling down my chks as i finally “hard” th lov. as w both sat thr in tars w ralizd that this spcial momnt had takn our fathr/son rlationship to a nw lvl.a short whil aftr this spcial momnt, my fathr narrowly scapd dath following hart surgry. many tims sinc, i hav pondrd th thought, if i did not tak th first stp and dad did not surviv th surgry, i would hav nvr “hard” th lov.
