An Open Letter to My Dad on His 75th Birthday
Okay, 75. Wow. The kids’ school is the same age as you would be, Kouk, and that feels like a really big number. A milestone number. A milestone year.
And, maybe subconsciously, I made it one. Maybe the back of my brain knew it was time to do something big, not for you per se (love you, mean it), but for me in honor of you. For us.
This year, I wrote a book. I had it illustrated, laid out by someone who knows what she’s doing, and I published it. I dedicated it to you:
To my dad, who told me to never lose my writing. And to all of us figuring out how to ride the waves.
It’s a booklet about grief. It’s what I needed all those years ago. I still need it now. It feels really vulnerable and somewhat unsafe in the sense that it makes me hugely visible, but it also feels like freedom. This little booklet is taking us to new places. It’s pushed me super far out of my comfort zone already and into the open arms of people who have been waiting for me to arrive at this next level.
I’ve been seeing more eagles lately, too, which makes sense.
It feels really, really good to have accomplished something that’s always been on my list, and in a way that feels so different than everything I’ve seen. I’ve never seen a grief booklet that can fit in someone’s back pocket! I’ve never seen a little, powerful thing that would have helped me so much when I was missing you.
And I’m pretty sure you were with me that morning when it pretty much wrote itself.
So, that’s the big update. We’re standing together at a whole new beginning. I don’t want to write about anything else that’s gone on this year or that we have planned because this thing is the thing that’s been brewing inside of me for years, and I had no idea.
It’s the thing that is making me brave enough to reach for the next thing.
It’s the thing I know you’d be proud to show off.
And I plan to give you more.
Oliver does, too. TBD on Bianca. We gotta teach her to read first. But I bet she’ll join us, especially if you have a hand in it all.
Happy birthday, Kouk! Thank you for living on in us and through us. Ice cream for you later.
I love you,
Whit
