« Clothes Make the Writer? | Blog Home | The Burton Review »

Happy Father’s Day!

This blog seems to be turning into a shrine to my husband this week–but I couldn’t let father’s day go by without mentioning my girl’s daddy. My husband was an only child, and the youngest cousin in his family to boot. Before Isabella was born, he’d held a baby maybe twice in his life, had certainly never changed a diaper or had anything to do with day to day baby-care. And yet–

And yet from the moment our daughter was born, he jumped in and started taking care of her as though he’d been doing it his whole life. I remember him effortlessly scooping her up and rocking with her when I went to take a shower an hour or so after she was born. And now, two and a half years later, it’s just the same. He takes her for outings to the park, on worm hunting expeditions, on trips to the library, reads to her and teaches her all about airplanes and pretends to eat the pretend food she cooks not only to give me a break or allow me writing time, but because he just plain loves his girl.

Six months ago, when I was in the throes of all the first-trimester morning sickness horror, he practically took over the childcare duty entirely. Isabella was heavily into having tea parties with her toy tea set back then. And let me preface this story by saying that the words “tea party” are not exactly the first two that spring to mind when I think of my husband. But one day I staggered into the kitchen and found him, completely on his own initiative, brewing a pot of herbal tea for her because he “thought it would be fun for Bella to have a party with real tea for a change instead of only pretend.”

And you know, as many wonderful things as my husband has done for me, as many wonderful memories as I have of our nine years of being married, it’s times like those–times like watching him patiently help Bella pour the tea into the teapot and get pot, cups, saucers, etc. for them both all set out on her little tray–when I most of all think, You are so, so lucky to be married to this man.

And before I sign off, I would be a horrible daughter if I didn’t mention my own daddy today, as well. I owe him so much–but for this post I’ll mention just one of the gifts he’s given me, namely my writing career. I was raised by two English PhD’s in a house filled pretty much from floor to ceiling with books. Growing up, I read and made up my own stories constantly, so I think the idea of wanting to be a writer was always there in the back of my mind, always something I knew I wanted to do. But at the same time, apart from journals and stories and poems and the like in private notebooks, I was afraid to try writing seriously–afraid that what I wrote would be no good, afraid of having it, you know, actually read by other people.

So, fast forward to my final year of college, when one of the requirements of my program was a senior honors thesis. I was incredibly busy that year, planning a wedding, carrying a very heavy course load of classes, but my dad (also a writer) essentially sat me down and said, “You are writing a historical novel as your thesis.” He took me out and bought me my first laptop to work on, pushed me (in a good way) and encouraged me and was with me through every step of the journey from outline to first stumbling chapters to finished draft.

Without that, I don’t think I’d have had the courage to try it. But by the end of the school year I’d finished a 300 page novel. Not that it was exactly a masterpiece, but it taught me a lot about what being a writer meant–and more importantly, made me fall in love with everything about doing research and getting to know my characters and building my own fictional world within a story’s frame. When I graduated that May, I couldn’t have stopped writing if I’d tried.

Thanks, Daddy! And happy Father’s Day!

This entry was posted Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Happy Father’s Day!”

1. Marie Burton Says:
   June 21st, 2009 at 5:49 pm

   Wonderful post, Anna! It’s great to have a supportive dad, and it always helps when you are both creative thinkers!
   And what a great guy you married also, good job
   Thanks for sharing.

   
   
2. Amy Says:
   June 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   What a beautiful and touching post. Growing up without a father myself, I appreciate the father that my daughter has in my husband. I tell myself all the time how lucky I am. It’s nice to see another couple so close and in love!

   Happy Fathers Day!

   
   

Anna Elliott's blog is proudly powered by WordPress.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).