I Miss My Dad

When I was about 12, I did love to draw and design things. One day I had spent hours creating a new world in my head, then onto paper of islands with lagoons and shipwrecks (aka “Swallows and Amazons”) and little villages populated with stick people and I named them all. My dear Dad saw these simple childish drawings but thought enough of them to show them to an architect friend of his. Surprisingly this architect was reasonably impressed and advised Dad to encourage me to continue with my designs. Anyway, Dad bought me pencils and a large drawing board (just like a real architect would have) and some easy to use and simple architectural tools. Well, suffice to say that because of my Dad’s belief in and support of me, I became an architect and I am so thankful that just before Dad died, I had the great pleasure and now eternal memory of mine, showing Dad around my first ever building that I had designed, at night, just the two of us. Dad and I both had a tear in our eyes, knowing that this was a special moment for us both.