Veterans Wives Group |
Annette's storyDad always seemed to have different ways of coping with stress. Of course he was very good at the standard yelling, and he never had a problem burying his worries in a beer or three - it was always very obliging, after all - but he had other ways as well. He'd often throw himself into his garden, or find something that needed to be welded together, and there were also those things that just had to be done around the house (you know the ones - they're probably still not finished!). I never really thought of some of Dad's peculiarities until I got married. Well, to be exact it was on my wedding day. I was an only daughter of four children, born to a man who was one of six boys. Even the pets at our house were male. Mum and I were definitely in the minority, and Dad did not know how to cope with a house full of females! We should have had an idea that he was getting a little tense on the day before when my (now) husband and I arrived at my parents to see Dad, my three brothers, and various neighbours hacking away with an axe at a tree stump that 'just had to be moved' right then and there… I chose to ignore them, because all I could envisage was someone losing a limb. On the big day Dad was up and about quite early. Sending him for the flowers only took about half an hour, and he returned to what I'm sure was his worst nightmare - ten females in his kitchen and lounge room, which had been taken over and made to resemble a hairdressing salon and a beauty parlour. There were rollers and lipsticks flying everywhere. This probably wasn't helped at all by the champagne that was disappearing rapidly, and the fact that it was only 10am! We didn't have to leave the house until after 2!! Dad came in, grunted, and left again. Moments later we heard this almighty roar. Yep, he'd started the chainsaw. That tree stump that they'd managed to remove the day before was waiting. It just had to be cut up into firewood there and then. Heaven know what would happen if it were left for another day! The look of shock on at least half of the faces was priceless! The hairdressers dubbed Dad "Mr Steel Magnolia", after the movie. Mum and I just accepted it - let's be honest, while he was outside with a chainsaw he wasn't inside stressing us! It made for a memorable day, that's for sure! I was so proud walking down the aisle on Dad's arm. We'd had our differences over the years, and there were times that I really didn't like him very much, but I know that I always loved him, and I could not imagine getting married without Dad there to give me away. His speech at my reception was wonderful, too. He got a lot of laughs, and managed to get most of the room sentimental when he told them that my wedding dress was made from my mothers wedding dress, and that the fabric it was made with had been purchased by him while he was on leave during his tour of duty in Vietnam over thirty years earlier!! It certainly made the dress much more special to me. It's funny that the older I get the more I chose to remember only the positive parts of my life with Dad. By doing this I can continue to grow as a person and not let the past control me. Annette |
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