(Grand) Father's day

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

This is my Poppop. Here we are dancing at my uncle's wedding in 2005. Yes, that is him dancing. Despite his limited (no) training, he knows how to swing his partner around the floor and make them laugh hysterically. We started this tradition many years before, dancing the jitterbug when I was just a kid in front of a packed room of Wilmington's elite. I was the youngest date there, and we were the life of the party.

Here we are dancing at my own wedding in 2008 to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", the same song we started our tradition with so many years ago.

Things have not changed much over the years. If I had a dollar for every time that man has "embarrassed" me since he and my grandma became my legal guardians in 1986, I would be a millionaire. He's loud, he's curt, he walks to the beat of his own drummer. He is a man of routine who eats 3 meals at the same time every day. He loves Carolina, military history, his hometown, Miller Lite, and family. Really, he's perfect. Most importantly, he loves me and has been a wonderful father to a girl who may have never had one.

I know this day wasn't easy on him. Losing his youngest, his "princess", his "hot shot", his "chicken shoes" (and those are the more normal nicknames). I'll never forget the look in his eyes as he prepared to walk me down the aisle. He was letting me go; trusting that Matt would be there for me the way he had always been.

Happy Father's Day Poppop, and to all the dads who have gone above and beyond to care for, protect, and love their little girls.