Stay With Me, Daddy __link__ -

Because the truth is, we spend our entire childhoods pushing away from our fathers to find our own footing, only to spend our adulthoods terrified that they might actually walk away for good.

We don't talk enough about the role reversal. Society tells us that fathers are the protectors, the immovable mountains. But what happens when the mountain starts to erode? stay with me, daddy

It is the quiet panic when he gets winded walking up the stairs. Because the truth is, we spend our entire

So, if you are lucky enough to still be able to pick up the phone and hear his gruff "Hello," do it. If you are lucky enough to hug him, don't do that quick, pat-on-the-back hug. Hold on for one second longer. But what happens when the mountain starts to erode

Then you whisper it to the stars. You carry him in the way you hold your own children. You stay with the memory. And you know, with absolute certainty, that somewhere—he is still staying with you. Do you have a "Stay with me, Daddy" memory? Share it in the comments below. Let’s honor the good ones while they’re still here.

There is a specific kind of grief that comes with watching your hero age. It is the realization that the man who taught you to ride a bike, who scared away the monsters under the bed, who stood at the altar with tears in his eyes handing you to your spouse... cannot hear the punchline of the joke you just told.

There comes a moment in every "daddy’s girl’s" life when the tables turn almost imperceptibly.