Ashby Bow
“Everybody else was busy and somehow you never were, not for me anyway. You had the whole afternoon and you spent it listening to a child talk.”
“I watched you study through late nights and early shifts to become a nurse. You never once talked about quitting, even when I would have understood.”
“You knew him before he was any of the things that I fell for, and liked him anyway. Whatever you did to him growing up it plainly worked. I have the benefit of it.”
“You have stood exactly where I am standing and you know how it feels. Which is precisely why you have been one step ahead of me all year.”
“I was not an easy one to teach and we both know exactly what that cost you. You kept asking me questions long after I had stopped answering them.”
“You have seen me at my very worst and you have never brought any of it up since. Today everyone meets the polished version. You are the one who knows the rest.”
“Everyone will say you look beautiful today, and they will be right. But what I love most is that you look so completely like yourself.”
“Of all the gifts you have ever given me, this one is the biggest. You made me a dad, and you made our little family complete.”
“You did not have to make room for me at your table. You did it anyway, before I had done a single thing to earn it.”
“You were right about the house and I argued with you for three weeks. You have never brought it up again. Not once, in all the years since.”
“Half of what I know how to do I picked up standing next to you in a kitchen. None of it was ever written down and you never once measured a single thing.”
“I ran behind that bicycle holding the seat for most of one long summer. You did not notice the day I let go, and that was entirely the point.”
“Plenty of people will agree with me and most of them are doing it to be kind. You tell me when I am wrong and you do it without enjoying it at all.”
“This will be the busiest summer break you have ever had. And I think it will also be the best, with our baby in your arms.”
“I do not remember one word of any speech anybody gave at our wedding. I remember that your hands were shaking and you laughed at me anyway.”
“The first time you turn the key in your own front door, take a moment. You worked hard for this, and you deserve to stand there and feel proud.”
“This is your reminder to drink some water, get some sleep and call your dad. Also, go easy on yourself. You are doing better than you think.”
“Your stocking still goes up every year, right where it has always hung. No matter how grown up you get, it is never coming down.”