October 10, 2004
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Love comes in many forms. It isn’t my dad’s birthday, and it certainly isn’t Father’s Day, but today I want to dedicate my blog to dear Blake. Blake is a pretty amazing guy, he recently shaved his hair off in support of Breast Cancer. He also recently shaved off 30 pounds in support of his desire to be as healthy as he can be.
Dad is frugal with money. No new wardrobe for dad despite his weight loss, no, he now looks like a rapper with crotch round the knee jeans and baggy shirts.
Dad is frugal with words. But I always knew he loved me. Even though he does giggle right before he tells me he loves me, I know he loves me.
Dad loves walking, and I don’t think just because it saves money on gas, taxi and bus fares. He loves walking and has a very distinctive walk.
Dad finds unusual ways to say “I LOVE YOU TESS AND YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO ME.”
When I was a little girl, we lived in Edmonton. I loved reading even then and two of my favourite books were “Mog the Forgetful Cat” and “How Now Brown Cow”. HOW was the coolest book, it was two stories in one. Neat concept, great book.
We moved to Yellowknife when I was 10. The school and public library did NOT contain either of those books. In 1984, when I was way too old for it, mum managed to procure Mog for me. What a great Christmas gift that was. But How Now Brown Cow was harder to come by. I occasionally referred to it, but as time passed, I mentioned it less. Thought we had all forgotten about it.
One day, dad called me. I was living in hong kong, Charles and I were dirt poor, and calls home (as i called it then) were once a month (twice the month that princess Diana died). And DAD called me. We quickly established that nothing was wrong, and then he said,
“Tessie, does this sound familiar?”
and he started to read.
“Susy got off the school bus…”
and I paused and then said, “no, not really…” (give me some credit, it had been 15 years since i read the book!!!)
and he kept reading. By the time he was halfway into the next sentence, I yelled
HOW NOW BROWN COW HOW NOW BROWN COW!!!!!
HOW DID YOU GET MY BOOK???
And I learned that for the past 15 years, if time allowed when my father was on a business trip, he would walk (surprise!!) to the nearest public library and head to the children’s section, in search of How. After 15 years he wasn’t holding out much luck, but he continued on his quest. I was worth it.
And one day the librarian found it for him. This is a book with three and two colour illustrations. This is not a glamorous book. It had not been signed out in a long time. The last time a child’s hands had touched this book, the librarian had been using stamp pads.
My dad asked if he could take out a membership, and also HNBC. He told them about his daughter who had been wanting this book for over a decade. He asked, “How much would the late charges be, if perhaps, this book was never returned?” They knew and he knew that the book would not be coming back if he managed to walk out the door with it. They were touched by the story (and probably by dad’s charming manner and sweet blue eyes that tend to get a wee bit liquid-y when he is talking about those he loves) and let him sign out the How. My Dad made a donation to the library to the amount the librarian approximated would be the late charges if the book were never returned, which coincidentally, or not, was close to the replacement value of the book. Dad came home to Yellowknife, picked up the phone and called ME ME ME.
Today, my children are too young to read them the story, but I pull How from the bookshelf often, to show friends, to see if they once read and loved the book with two stories inside. But as i tell them about my father and how he got the book for me, I realise the book is now even more special, because How, now tells three stories. And the greatest of these is love.
