06/21/2026
For all the fathers who are present, fathers who are no longer with us, stepfathers, father figures, mothers who are both mother and father, let’s take a moment today.
Nothing makes me think about my father more than white high top Converse... well, maybe also New Year’s Day football and a deli platter. Until he got much older, he never wore any other sneaker. He played basketball and softball in them, a holdover from his youth he wasn’t willing to give up.
I still hear his voice clearly, have conversations with him, tell him about something I think he’d appreciate, and remain forever grateful for the last ten months of his life when I saw him almost every single day.
Not going to lie, before his health declined I saw my dad (parents) a few times a year. They lived in Maine, we lived in NYC. It was just far enough that we didn’t make the trip up that often. Always a week in the summer, and Thanksgiving, my dad’s favorite holiday.
So to have an extended stretch of time with him, even if he wasn’t at peak health, was such a gift.
Today I’ll be at the beach, a place he loved.
