This is one of my favorite photos of my dad, taken in his garden when we reunited after ten years of not seeing each other. I think the picture really captures his kindness, sense of fun and just how much he always loved me. Even during those years we were so far apart, I felt his love for me. In Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, the teenage girl Abra says “Girls love their fathers terribly”. And I did mine. He would be eighty years old this year, but he’s been gone for sixteen years. I miss him every day.
Yes! I knew it! That’s how you survived. You knew you were loved…
Yes! It made a big difference in my life.
I saw your father in many plays at the Guthrie when I went to school at Macalester College and subsequently worked in the Twin Cities. When I met you, I was in awe because you were his daughter. I was so thrilled to know you then because you were stage royalty. Whaddyaknow!!