Happy Father's Day

As I was driving to work on Friday morning, the morning radio announcers were talking about what advice their dad's had given them growing up, things like respect your mother, don't burn bridges, move on but leave doors open. It made me think about what advice my dad had given me over the years. As I thought about it I realised that the things I gleaned from dad were more lessons learned from how he lived his life.

He was never afraid of trying new things it didn't matter what age he was when something new spark his interest he would run with it. Through out his life he had many hobbies and interests, he would tackle these with much vigour and always wanted to excel at them. As a young man of 17 he went of the adventure of his life at that time. He sailed with a professional photographer from Nassau Bahamas to New York. He had grown up around boats and knew how to sail but this was something very different sailing some 1700 km of open ocean. The gentleman was Stanley Toogood who was renown for travelling throughout the Bahamas taking photographs.  

In his late 50s he and my mum decided to sell their hardware store and buy a block in the country with a view to establishing an avocado orchard. He wasn't one to start a project blindly, he did much research about growing avocados and got lots of advice from specialists.

He was a generous person, whether it with his time, knowledge or money. My eldest brother once told me that he thought dad was one of the smartest men he knew, not talking about book smart but about a man that had experienced a full life and had lots to share about that life. He definitely didn't know everything but he certainly knew a lot about many things.

I knew that he always wanted what was best for his family and would do what ever was in his power to achieve this. I love my dad very much and  wish I was able to tell him this now but as he passed away nearly four years ago it's not possible. So today and always make sure you tell your dad's how much you love them.

This is a photo of mum and dad on their wedding day in 1948, how young they both were at that time. They shared a long and wonderful life together.