I've Got So Much Honey, the Bees Envy Me

"I have something to ask you for tomorrow night."  My father said to me on the eve of my wedding. Everyone in the wedding party and close family members had finished up their dinner and began to mingle with one another at the restaurant.

I was sitting with my Dad.

"Sure Dad.  Anything."

"Will you dance on my feet like you did when you were a little girl?"

And then....

Tears.  First from him.

Then from me.

The discussion of the dance...

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The next day he walked me down the aisle, arms linked.

Me, a beaming bride.  He, a proud father with (at least) a tear in each eye.

You can't quite tell in the picture...but my  Dad
was fighting hard to keep the tears at bay. 

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Our father-daughter dance was to 'My Girl by the Temptations.  I chose that song because years ago we had sang it together during a memorable karaoke night on a hot summer evening during a family vacation.

I was 16 years old.

12 years later...

We began with our usual spinning, twirling and easy dad-daughter dance rhythm.  After all, I had been dancing with my father for 28 years at that point.  Maybe not every year.  Or even every other.  But my Dad?  He was my first dance partner. And if there's nothing a little girl forgets...it's who her first dance partner is.

My Dad?  He was the best kind.

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"It's time babe."  Our eyes met and we smiled.  It was just over mid-way through 'My Girl'.

'I don't need no money, fortune or fame...I've got all the riches, baby, one man can claim....

I kicked my sequinned flip flops off toward the crowd of friends and family that gathered in groups around us, watching, taking pictures and videos.  Everyone was having a wonderful time, enjoying our moment.

This moment though?  Was our moment.  For my Dad and I only.

All 28 years of me including my newly pedicured bare feet stepped onto his shiny shoe clad ones.

And we danced around in a circle just like that, my right hand in his left...a grown up reflection of my father's most precious memories.

Our father-daughter dance.
Yes...sadly this is the ONLY picture I have of this special moment so if anyone
has better ones PLEASE send them my way!
(this is a picture of a picture which is why the quality is so terrible)

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The recollection of me dancing on his toes when I was a little girl is vaguely sketched on the background of my mind.

But it's the dance that I had with my father as a new wife and grown woman that is indelibly imprinted on the forefront of my heart.

Happy Father's Day Dad.

You gave me a gift that will last forever that day.

I love you with all my heart.

XO

(p.s. - I will always be your little girl)