Days for Dad

Happy belated Father’s Day! Today is my dear departed Papa’s birthday and Summer Solstice too. My summer holiday madness is commencing as this week will also be St. Jean Baptiste in Quebec and Discovery Day in Newfoundland. Then it will be Canada Day followed quickly by July 4th. It kind of creeps up on you.

My dad’s birthday was always in the same week as Father’s Day and I seem to recall we would always have two celebration parties. Let’s be honest – in late June any excuse to have a barbecue with cake is reason enough for a celebration. His birthday and Father’s day also had the fortune of happening around the same time as the close of the school year.

I don’t think of these days with sadness. I remember barbecues, camping, eating on our back deck, sitting in the swing we had in the backyard and my dad picking flowers on the side of the road for his sister when she visited. Those are good memories.