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| My parents |
In this
vacuous 21st century that I call The Age of the Emoji, it is impossible to not
notice that famous people die every day so we have put up their pictures in
social media and just comment how wonderful they were. Then there is the
wishing a happy birthday to people who are long dead.
Today is
father’s day and nobody seems to acknowledge that it is also grandfather’s day.
Pictures of fathers are placed in social media with perhaps the one comment on
how they are missed.
My awareness
of stuff related to my father began when I was a little boy in Buenos Aires and
my mother would tell me, “Alex, you will
never understand because you will never be a mother”. She died in 1972 and
it was only after that I figured out I should have told her, “Mother you will
never understand because you will never be a father.”
Few today
will write what it is like to be a father. For me today I have to remember my
Rosemary as she is the person who made me a father as she had our two daughters
Alexandra and Hilary.
We left
Mexico City in 1975 for Vancouver because Rosemary said that as things were at
the time in Mexico it was not a good place for our children. Until I had a good
income as a photographer in Vancouver by 1977/78 Rosemary used whatever money
we had to take care of our daughters.
She told me
we were going to live in Burnaby so that I could go to Vancouver to find work
but (very important) we would be close enough to Coquitlam so Ale and Hilary
could learn French. One day years later when Ale said, “Me and some guys…”
Rosemary decided that Ale had to be put in a private school which ended up
being York House. With some prodding on her part both our daughters went to
university. Ale attended UBC and Hilary went to Simon Fraser.
Once we were
grandparents Rosemary and I made sure our granddaughters had all the
opportunities to improve their lives. We paid for dance, swimming and piano
lessons. We took our granddaughters to Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay. We took
them to the Main Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, at first in the
children’s department. We did our best to inculcate them into reading.
I am afraid
now that in this century when grandfather’s day is not acknowledged that as one I am now simply an old man who is obsolete, redundant, retired and
inconsequential.
And yes
today I remember my father George fondly and I remember all that he did to make
me a better person. Best of all I thank him for inheriting me his ability to be
a journalist. I write my blog and this one is blog 6942. He would be proud.
I must add that besides having a father I had a few others. These were the Brothers and Fathers of Holy Cross who gave me an outstanding education in my four years at St. Edward's High School in Austin, Texas.
I will acknowledge that mentors can be both women and men. But few might not know who the original mentor was. When Ulises went to fight in troy he hired a mentor calle Mentor to teach his son Telemachus.
