Dear Dad,
4 weeks until Boxing Day, will it be different this year? How can it ever be the same?
Boxing Day would normally start with mum asking you to lay the table while she prepares the food. I think it’s the only time you actually enjoyed this job and what a grand job you did! And the special’ flutes and tumblers come out too.
It’s a conversation we keep having amongst ourselves, how do we keep it ‘normal’ when this isn’t normal, how do we carry on when we don’t want to accept it, how can it ever be normal.
Greetings start with Happy. Happy Diwali or Happy Christmas, I’m saying it back but in my head, I’m thinking what’s so ‘happy’ about it?
This time of year, always reminds me of your shop and how cold it used to be. When Kawal and I used to go there all layered up, with leggings and jeans and then once we got to the workshop we’d have our overalls on top of that, we’d still be asking you to put the heating on. You’d say once you start working you’ll warm up. With both of us standing in front of our vices, Kawal on her special platform you made for her, as she couldn’t reach. You would give us a load of alternators and starter motors to open.
Did we have fun or what!
Respect to you dad for working outside against all of the elements, heat, cold, snow or rain. We know you work hard, like everyone else’s dad, but you don’t have the comfort of an office where you can put the a.c or heating on. You’d still have to serve your customer regardless of the weather! Even Bubbly and Suman remember the snow on your eyelashes! Mum left us at home one Christmas Eve to come help you at the shop because the amount of snow that fell. Mum remembers seeing you knee high in snow trying to fix this customers car so he could get home to his family. Mum came and held the torch so you could get on with the job. Mum asked where your boys (employees) were? You said you let them go home early so they could enjoy their holidays too!
You love your job, the people that surround you and how they speak so highly of you is unbelievable. Every week someone has a story to tell about your kind heartedness which we thought was only for us!
Dad, do you remember one Saturday night you came up to Kawal and said ‘show me your nails’ Kawal always had long nails. You said, ‘sorry darling but can you cut them?, I need you to move some units tomorrow’ (you were moving premises). Dad you kept saying sorry. But you needed a hand and we can proudly say that our dad could rely on us.
Next morning, we went to the workshop, there was a white van, you told us to fill it with the alternators and starter motors that were in the yard so we can take them to your new shops. You left us there to get on with it!
A few hours later you came back, you told us both to stand and look at the van. Without realising we had filled it so much that the body was nearly touching the ground! You then told us to start unloading before the tyres burst! We were not happy! From picking them with care and placing them into the van we were literally throwing them out now!
Dad, do you remember when me and Kawal found the wheelbarrow? We thought we had a clever plan, fill it up and wheel it back in the yard! You stood there watching us, filling this wheelbarrow, Kawal being the stronger one got ready to push it, she calls me over as it’s too heavy for her to pick. I get one side of the handle and she gets the other, Dad, you’re still standing and watching us. We couldn’t even lift it off the ground, we tried and tried! So, we get on to plan b, we start to unload some of the units to make it lighter, at last we can lift it! We walk a few yards and the whole thing topples over!
That day we moved about 2 thousand units into your new place!
You were well chuffed with us regardless of the few that we broke!
Dad you trusted us so much, that one summer you and grandad decided to make a wooden construction/ veranda at the back of our home. You both filled the garden with lots of long planks of wood. You told grandad that these will all need to be painted before the construction can take place. Grandad replied ‘well, you can call a few the boys from the workshop to help us, especially once the construction is nailed together we’ll need help lifting it, then we’ll need to get up on top and place the plastic sheets to make the roof. Dad you looked at your dad, and said I’ll be back! You came inside, told us four to get our old clothes on quickly and get into the garden. Once we got into the garden you said to your dad, I don’t need the boys I’ve got my daughters. You gave us each a paint brush and we helped you paint and nail it together, all of us with mum we managed to put the structure up! And it’s still standing strong today!
Miss these days, miss you Dad
X
Cherish your memories! Write them down so you never forget and you can pass these stories on!