Dear Dad

Dear Dad,
         I don't know if you will ever be able to read this, but if I don't write it I will go completely crazy. It's been a couple of years since I last saw you, so I guess I will start by telling you what's going on in my life.I returned to Germany a few weeks after you...well after the last time you saw me. I began to date a wonderful woman I met here, and well we've been together since then. She introduced me to her pre-teen son, who has decided that he wants me to be his father. I almost laughed at that one.  Me, a dad.  You know that I am pretty much a kid myself.

         I also returned to Iraq for another tour.  It wasn't anything that I wanted to do after burying so many good men the first time, but you raised me not to be a quitter.  The tour was long, hot, and demanding but I stuck it out.  I knew that you wouldn't be able to tell me how proud you were, however I could feel that pride as I came home.

         After that I left active duty and married my sweet angel, Sylvia.  Her son, Thomas, is now our son...and I cherish him.  I know that you would have loved them both and welcomed them to the family with open arms.  I tell Sylvie often how you would take him fishing with you if you could, and how proud you would have been hearing of the birth of our second son, Michael.

         Dad, I have to know some things.  Did I really have to almost die for you to accept me?  Did I really have to go to war for you to announce to the world that I am your son?  Did you ever notice that I hated being in the military, and that I hate fighting?  I am not you, Pops.  And I sure as hell am not my womanizing, cocky brother either.  But did that make me less of a son to you.  Were you really so embarrassed my the fact that I was not as much like you as people thought?

         Well Pop, I am who I am.  I am an artist.  I am a writer.  I am a husband.  And I am a father.  Heroism is not in my blood, and violence is something that I would rather write about than participate in.  I am exactly what you and Mom created almost 33 years ago:  the best of her, and the worst of you. 

         But beyond all that Dad, at the end of the day there is only one thing that I have to say to you.  And that is that I love you, and I miss you terribly.  I miss our good moments together, and I really miss our good fights. 

         I hope that one day we can meet again.

Your son,

Terry