Each week we post an article or paper submitted by a member or "silent participant" of Guyana Caribbean Network. The featured article runs from Monday to Sunday each week. To submit an article for feature of the week contact us at admin@guyanacaribbeannetwork.com This week's feature is brought to you by "Artemis".

My father: I will love you, Today, Tomorrow and Always
by "Artemis"

One day when I was seven years of age helping my eldest sister perform some household chores and very much enjoying what I was doing, my mother walked into the yard with an unusual look on her face. As she approached I saw wetness and sadness in her eyes. I thought at first she must have been tired. She had been away from my siblings and I for a whole week nursing my sick dad at the hospital. For a minute or two she was speechless then she turned to me and whispered that my father has passed away

I was too young to realize or understand the loss, but as time passed and as I aged I realized that he would not be coming back. It is many years since he passed away early that morning and I am now fully aware of the importance of my father in my life.

I don't have many memories of my father. I do recall he was very fond of Indian movies and cricket. He was also a very reserved person who didn't like attention and didn't care to give any, particularly to people who did not matter in his life. Despite that, I still see him as a beautiful and wonderful person who was extremely modest and didn't care for riches.

My father was a family man, but upon getting ill most of his time was spent at the hospital. Once while visiting him at the hospital I recalled the days when my father was the breadwinner of the family, a strong and loving person, but on that day in particular as I stood besides him in the hospital I saw my father as a man who was too weak to even talk to his own child.

I recall my father being a person who liked to build things. I know if he were alive today he would talk about the car he had promised my eldest sister and he would also be very proud of his grand children. To this day my siblings and I still discuss all the good times we had when he was alive. We recall climbing into his lap and playing with his face, counting his eyes and ears, doing all the things a child would do with their parent.

At the funeral, somebody said: "Your father has only died, you will stop thinking about him". That may be true to them, but to date, he has been on my mind every day, and will continue to be on my mind for a long time, most likely he will be on my mind for a lifetime. They say that "time heals all wounds". Trust me, that's hogwash. Time only enables you to give it a place, It doesn't heal anything. You still have to cope with the feelings and it's awfully hard to deal with those feeling when they concern someone in your life whom you love and who is no longer around.

I miss my father terribly. I wish I could have learnt a lot more from him before he passed away. More than the loss of a father I miss a good mentor. He was someone I could have learnt from during childhood, adolescence and even now as an adult. I think of him every day and will continue to think of him as long as I live.

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