Yesterday it was Father's Day. I wanted to celebrate my dad even though I am in Germany and he is in Greece so my mum, my sister and me organized his surprise (his presents, hidden in our childhood room) and I was to call him and guide him to find them. He was alone as my mum was in the city my sister lives, they had two christenings to attend... I was to call him at about the time he gets back to the house from the Kafenio* he goes to every morning. My sister couldn't because of the already mentioned christenings so even though we were in a trip with the chorus C. is a member of, I called. And called. And called. He also has a cell phone but it is rarely somewhere around him so... no luck with that either! I thought "Mum is not there so maybe he's eating out with friends." My cell battery was low after all those attempts to find him and I was having such a great time, I decided to call again in the afternoon. My dad is also a fan of siesta, no sense in searching for him between 15:00 and 18:00.
At the house of C.'s parents, at about 18:00, I charged my cell phone and tried again. Still no answer. At that point it was about time to get panicked. My dad was not feeling himself for the last couple of months, he was tired, he is 71 years old and has rich medical history, with a double heart bypass as highlight. I called my mum (in my sister's house) to ask if they had spoken with him today. No, was the answer and we will send your uncle to check on him, she said, also panicked.
The story has a happy end. My uncle was there just in time to catch him before his bath, I can't imagine what he would have to do if dad hadn't answered the door! My dad had done some "handiwork" and as a result the cordless telephone had no electricity to function (but he had no idea about that) and of course he had forgotten his cell phone in his car.
I got to finally talk to him at 22:00 when I was back home, with Skype. He was laughing like a mischievous kid and I was just so happy to see him... I led him to his presents and everything in the world was wonderful again. All this helped me realize even more how much i love him, how precious he is to me, that I can't imagine my life without him and how easy it is to lose our happiness in just one second. I miss him every day, I feel I'm losing so much, even though we skype every day... I know I'm lucky I still have him, that he is my father to begin with...
All my childhood photos are at my parents home (I will scan every each and one of them on my next trip) so some recent of him with my niece and nephew will have to do!
Σ'αγαπώ πολύ μπαμπά μου!
* Kafenio is a traditional Greek cafe only older men frequent.
No comments:
Post a Comment