To me, my father was a mystery… He and my mother were married… and technically they lived together… but he was hardly ever at home… When he was, he locked himself in his room/office. “Not now….I’m working….” he always said when I knocked on his door…
My family was not an ordinary family… there was no dinner-time or times where the family was together… we didn’t share things with each other… we didn’t have ‘fun’ together …do ‘stuff’ together…

I have always tried my best to be there for my children… and I truly believe I have for the most parts… I haven’t always been able to come with them to a school event, or even speak up for them when they have needed me to… but I am always willing to listen without judging or ridicule their opinions… We can have fun together, be silly or cry together when we need…

I have had the privileges of being a father to ten children… one that I have never met but hope I will one day…and nine of which I have with my wife… yes I know that’s a lot and more than most people… I have also been through what no parent wants to go through… I have lost five of my children… Meg, Kim, David and Johnny to terrible accident almost 22 years ago and Maria Carolyn was born asleep 2000… I am not very religious but I like to think that I have five little angels out there somewhere…

Kim and Meg my two little precious butterflies… and my two little boys… I have memories of playing with them… and having fun… hide and seek and monster dad… I have memories of them sitting beside me where I was playing the piano for them and they were singing along… When Amber, Emma, Gabriel and Rakel were little… I did the same for them… even though I had to use every bit of energy I had to do it….

We still “goof” around as we call it… we talk, and we laugh… and those are the most precious moments for a father… All of them have made me a better person and someone who is willing to use all his energy to be their father for the rest of his life… and hopefully for many years to come…

I had a happy father’s day today! Thanks to my children…