Story 2:
At 8 months pregnant, I found out my husband was che:ating. My mom said I can’t leave him—that I needed to think about my child. So I stayed.
The day I gave birth; I was in tears. My dad came to the hospital and said, “You will never cry again. Your new life begins today.” At first, I didn’t get what he meant. But then he showed me a key to an apartment he had rented for me and my newborn.
He told me he had already spoken to a divorce lawyer and that I could visit him whenever I was ready. Relief washed over me. I knew I didn’t want to spend my life with a cheating man, and knowing my dad stood by me was the greatest gift I could have received. He wasn’t a wealthy man, which made his sacrifice all the more meaningful.
Story 3:
Story 4:
When my mom was pregnant, she found red lipstick on my dad’s collar. Didn’t say anything. A couple of days later, she found foundation marks on his hand and picked up a fight. He confessed that he attends makeup courses, after which my mom freaked out even more, like how can you lie so brazenly?!
Instead of excuses, my dad just called me and gave me cool makeup! So Dad proved his point and said, “I have a grown-up daughter, a daughter who is 6, and a third one coming up. I have to be a good dad to them and be able to do everything!”
Story 5:
When I was 12, I jokingly put “Liquid Nitrogen” on my Christmas list. Come Christmas morning, my dad takes me out to the car, opens the trunk, and, lo and behold, there’s a 10-gallon canister of LN2.
We spent the next couple of weeks freezing random things. It was definitely the “coolest” thing he ever did—literally and figuratively.
Story 6:
Story 7:
My dad is an automotive engineer. When I was in elementary school, there was a Halloween costume contest. He made me a fully functioning robot costume out of scrap materials from his garage. It had working buttons, lights, and everything. I won the contest.
Story 8:
I went to school about four hours away from home. I’d been dating this girl for just about two years when I found out she had been cheating on me for the past few weeks. I ended the relationship and told my friends and family what happened.
I called my dad, and he asked if there was anything he could do. Being a broke college student, I said I’d really just love a good meal. He said he was tied up but told me to check my account after class because he would send some money.
Skip ahead four hours, and there’s a knock on my door—it’s my dad, standing there to take me out for dinner. If I can be half the father he is, my kids will be alright.
Story 9:
Story 10:
My father is a construction worker with an education that goes only as far as 6th grade. He drives a bulldozer and has for my whole life—waking up at 4 in the morning, stumbling home at 5 p.m., and falling asleep by 9 p.m. He never really had anything to do with raising us (I’m the youngest of 8), if only because he was too damn tired.
When I was about 12, Madonna was ALL THE RAGE, and all the girls were wearing those black rubber bracelets. My sisters and I wanted them more than anything, but we could never afford them.
One day, my dad came home with a bunch of O-rings he took from the mechanic in all different sizes for us to use as bracelets. They were covered in oil, and most of them were way too small to fit on our wrists, but it was SO SWEET of him that we forced them around our wrists until our hands turned blue (and black with oil) and proudly paraded around the neighborhood.
Story 11:
I was forced to go to summer camp when I was in 4th grade. I was miserable the entire time. I was never happy there once. I had no athletic ability at the time. I hated the kids. I hated the organization of our daily activities.
Anyway, despite the fact that I wrote countless letters to my parents about how I wanted to go home and cried all day and night, they never responded back because the camp director told them
I was just fine and that it would make things worse if I communicated with them.
During the last week of camp, I was walking aimlessly in the softball diamond when I saw a figure in the distance. It took me a moment to realize it was my dad. He came to rescue me.
sprinted towards him as fast as I could and gave him a hug. We both cried. He drove up seven hours to get me just to turn around and drive home.
Story 12:
