Grattitude for my Father
Dear Daddy,
I have been thinking a lot these last few days of the many ways I have been blessed by you in my life. I read something about how fathers don’t get thanked for the things we take for granted, like hot water in the winter, or electricity every day. And it’s true; I neglect to thank you for the little things you have done to serve us throughout our lives. So, on this Father’s day I want to thank you for loving me in so many ways.
Thank you for investing in my music. I know you sacrificed for me to have the chance to learn music – the expense of buying the piano and Instruments of Praise camp. Thank you for driving me to choir practice in high school after a long day’s work and for encouraging me in my singing. Playing the piano and singing for you is one of my favorite things to do (even though I’m not very good). I am a richer woman because of it.
Thank you for caring more about our family than in your own hobbies or social life. You have made us your number one priority and you have learned to enjoy what we enjoy, and our friends have become your friends; from the days of playing basketball in the front yard with Javi’s and the boys to the good chats you have with my core girlfriends. One of the favorite things in life is to have my friends over for some of your great food. Even when you’re not feeling super social, you take the time to care for my friends well.
Thank you for demonstrating such a strong work ethic to us all. I don’t know that I have met many people who work as hard as you do and who are so honest in how you do their tasks. Always 100 %. No Mickey Mouse jobs ; You get to work early so that you can start working right when you’re supposed to and you don’t cheat the clock and leave earlier than you’re supposed to. You don’t waste time on your personal business or call in sick just because you don’t feel like working that day. I was so proud of you as a little girl knowing you never called in sick and that you worked even when you were sick or had injured yourself. Thanks for teaching me to take pride in a job well done and taking me to the Herald Examiner with you when I was little so that I could see what you did. I was so proud of you, Daddy. Especially when you would tell me you caught a typo on one of the plates and would send it back to the writers or layout people so that the story wouldn’t get printed wrong. That wasn’t your job, but you cared about the end result. You always do your job as if it was your own company.
Even now I hear the things you have taught me replaying when I’m at work…and I am challenged to be more like you, to represent my family well because of what you have taught me about doing a good job.
Thanks for your joy for life. For building me swings in the front yard, for taking me on strolls with my dolls, and building me playhouses out of cardboard, for letting me work on the car with you and building dams in the river, for pancakes, on Saturday mornings, for the way you make friends with the birdies that make nests by your window every spring, and for being silly, like when you try to rap, “ah-what you say, a what you say!”
Thanks for letting us have pets …for sacrificing your love of green grass for the many puppies we have had and for loving them . . . eventually :) Thanks for playing catch with Aslan, for sharing bits of carne asada while you barbecued, with Lady (and me), for chasing Thunder across Los Angeles when he escaped, Thanks for broadening your horizons and bringing home bunnies when Javi really wanted some, letting us take our turtle on vacation with us, and for deciding that we could keep Tiffany because in your words, “We’ve never had a cat before. It will be fun!”
Thank you for cultivating in me a love for our heritage, for teaching me Spanish and making sure that I speak it correctly. I hope that I can maintain it and pass it on to your grandchildren if I am so blessed one day. Thanks for stories of your boyhood in Monterrey. In many ways you are my Mexico. I love that you treat me with tacos de Doña Cuca and that you are on a mission for the best tamal in the history of the world. I don’t know any other dad who has such a mission, and I get so much joy out of watching you improve your masa-spreading technique every winter (My favorite was when you used the putty-spackler!).
Daddy, thank you for being flexible with your lifestyle and humble. For letting mama stay home to teach us school, even though things were tight financially and a second income would have made life more comfortable. Thank you for being willing to move in with Grampy at the Gramercy house so that we all could take care of grandma Luvia when she was sick. She loved you so much and it was such a blessing to see how she would look at you and take pride in you. And thank you for being so caring with Grandma Alicia too…you two were so entertaining! She loved you so much too – that’s why she shared her Chex and pomada recipes with you !
Thank you for teaching us the value of family. For making visits with my Abuelitos Diaz an important part of growing up. I love my memories of times in the L.A. house. Sitting in the backyard with them, getting honey from Abuelito Lalo’s beehive or eating dough from Abuelita’s empanadas. And no matter how far Fontana seemed at first, there was no distance too great to keep us from being a part of their lives. Even though you may have different ideas than others in our family, you still love them, prioritize your relationship with them and don’t avoid them, because family is more important than that.
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Thank you more than anything for evidently loving the Lord. Papa, your heart is tender for the Lord and it makes such a difference in our lives. I’m glad that when you counsel me, you do it in light of the Truth. When you write to encourage me, you encourage me about the things that count and tell me to not depart from the Word of the Lord and His paths. It has been such a comfort for me in my life to know that you know the Lord and that you are His. You know so much Scripture and are so smart. I am glad I can go to you with my thoughts about doctrine or spiritual disciplines and that you would have good insight. I think about the things you have shared with me when I think about the kind of man I want to marry and I carry your counsel on the tablet of my heart.
Sometimes I get scared that something will happen to you or mama with me being 3,000 miles away on the other side of the country. While I know it’s no use worrying about something like that, that I can’t control. I do want to go on record to say that I love you so much, te quiero mucho, papi. I would never choose any other dad in the face of the planet but you.
Thank you for giving me a name that I can be proud of. I am proud to see Diaz on my degree or on my business cards. I am honored to be your daughter. The trials we have gone through together have made me stronger, more compassionate, and more intimate with the Lord. There are still so many other things I could thank you for, but I will tell you about them later. For now, have a Happy Father’s Day. I wish I could be with you, but as Anne Shirley wrote somewhere, our dreams exact a price, and the price of my dream right now is being far away from you. Sometimes, it’s painful to be so far. I wish I could just kick off my shoes under the dining room table like we both like to do and share a meal. Or join you on the couch to watch an episode of Bonanza or a Mexico, soccer game with you and mama and the boys, but I’m already crying too much so, I won’t let myself get more emotional by thinking about how much I miss you guys.
Me haces falta, papi. Te agradezco por todo lo que has hecho por mí para que yo pudiera realizar mis sueños. Espero que sientas todo el amor que te estoy enviando desde aquí y que nunca dudes cuanto te quiero, admiro y respeto. Soy bendecida por tu amor y tu ejemplo. Que Dios te bendiga hoy y siempre.
Tu Hija que te quiere mucho,
Ivette Alegría Díaz