Our Talking on Paper hostess, Karen, chose a prompt we all found challenging and asked for a few moments extra to compose our usual 5 minute essay "Write about HIM". Here's mine.

He would tuck me in at night while saying, "Good night Fred. Good night Tom" to the imaginary monsters in my closet.

He would always answer the phone with a funny "Yellow".

He would patiently teach me to drive a stickshift so I would be in control of every kind of car driven.

He would never walk me down the aisle or hear my sons call him "grandpa".

He would never know me as the evolved woman I've become.

But he will always be my dad and I will continue to miss him as I have since the day he passed away 33 years ago.