My 33rd Birthday

February 13, 2006 will be the first birthday I won't hear my Big, Bad Dad's deep baritone voice sing "Happy Birthday" to me. I miss my best friend. I miss my Daddy. I feel like a little girl. The pain is so pure and so natural. Not hateful and not at all full of anger. Just a longing, empty, sadness that nothing but his hug and his voice could fill. I am thankful for the 32 wonderful years I had with my father. I am thankful for all of the life lessons he has taught me. I am thankful for our relationship-it is a friendship which will never die as long as I am alive.

"You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that." Charlotte, Charlotte's Web