The Father-Daughter Relationship

A typical scene at the hospital, a woman screaming behind closed doors, a bulb flashing red above. All around the doors, people are sympathising with her and speaking of the pain she has to endure while giving birth. Everybody has yet to notice the young man, who with clammy hands is nervously pacing up and down the corridor, glancing often at those doors, probably as tense as the woman inside. A look of relief flashes across his face as the screaming melts into the sound of a crying baby. The doctor announces the birth of a daughter. This episode has been narrated to me countless times and my father’s behaviour characterised as “That of a child at Christmas”. That, my friends, was the start of an unbreakable bond, The Father – Daughter Relationship.

A relationship such as this, is filled with the more intricate details of life, ranging from learning of love to ABCs, skinned hearts and skinned knees, a walk in the garden to a walk down the aisle. This transition from playmate to mentor is definitely not an easy one. A father must watch his daughter transform into a beautiful butterfly while gently coaxing the caterpillar to believe in itself. He is the reason a daughter searches for a prince, he is already her King. Her first love,  a father to his daughter is the most priceless artefact to fuss over. He is her best critic, her pillar of strength. From a freckled child in a night-suit, begging for a bedtime story, a daughter turns into a young blushing bride in the blink of an eye.

Does it end here then? Nope! This relationship is not exchanged for another over the altar. One thread is not simply cut because another is tied. As is rightly said, “A son is a son till he finds a wife, A daughter is a daughter all her life”

At 5,15 or 45 years of a daughter’s age, her daddy is her daddy. He was, is and will always be the strongest and most handsome man in her life. At my wedding, the one thing that my daddy has decided to say, inevitably followed by a host of memories and emotions due to the number of times we have heard this song*, is

I LOVED HER FIRST ❤

 

 

*The song is I Loved Her First by Heartland