I admit it, I am a hugger. If you’re a friend……you get a handshake and a hug. I also can tell you exactly when it started. Well not the date, but the incident. I was in my twenties.
Growing up in my house was pretty formal. Addressing adults or those in the medical profession was always by “Yes/No, Sir”; or “Yes/No ma’am”. Answering with a ‘yeah’ was met with swift punishment. No big deal…..just always did it. I was at the hospital today and in speaking to the doc, she surely heard that same respect.
We always would kiss my mom good-night, but dad got a hand shake.
My brother had just graduated from the police academy…..well, actually he may have been on the force for a little bit. But he came over to visit one day and when he approached my dad, he gave him a handshake, a hug, and a kiss on his cheek. My dad was surely taken aback but my brother just said, “Some day we all may wish we are around to get one of those so that’s the way it’s going to be moving forward.”
And so it was.
My brother was faced, a few times, with incidents in police work where that prediction could have come to pass, but thank God, it never did.
I have always hugged my boys and I give them a kiss when I see them. TJ is a big kid (well at 27, kid is a relative term) and I asked him once, a long time ago, if he felt like people watched and/or cared about it. He answered very simply, “You’re my dad, anyone thinks anything about it, the problem is theirs.” And it was never talked about again.
I like the TV show, Chicago Fire. Toward the end of the episode this week, one of the leading characters hugged his dad. And hugged him tightly. I got a tad emotional because at that moment I was served another reminder that since my dad died on March 16th, 2009 I have truly missed my hug and a kiss from him,
I am so grateful that the night before he died, the last time I saw him, I hugged him, kissed him, and told him I loved him—–and he did the same to me. We did it because my brother was right years ago, “Some day we all may wish we are around to get one of those ………”.
Amen.
Hug someone today, I can tell you; we just never know……………………..
I am a diabetes dad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.
2 replies on “A Final Hug…….Do You Remember Yours?????”
Your post made me cry. I hug my kids all the time but ever since Newtown, when I take them to school every day, I park my car, instead of going thru the “line” where you have to hurry. When they get out they get the biggest hugs of the day. Sadly, I don’t remember my last hug from my dad, but he was a great hugger! He was killed at work in 1984 and was working nights. The last I remember was waking him up to go to work. I sat on the side of the bed for a few minutes because I just didn’t want to wake him.
Thank you for sharing……your kids will remember….they remember so much!!!!!