There was a silence at the other end and he awkwardly replied, “Well, same back at ya!”
I chuckled and said, “Dad, I know you love me, and when you are ready, I know you will say what you want to say.”
Fifteen minutes later my mother called and nervously asked, “Paul, is everything okay?”
A few weeks later, Dad concluded our phone conversation with the words, “Paul, I love you.” I was at work during this conversation and the tears were rolling down my cheeks as I finally “heard” the love. As we both sat there in tears we realized that this special moment had taken our father/son relationship to a new level.
A short while after this special moment, my father narrowly escaped death following heart surgery. Many times since, I have pondered the thought, if I did not take the first step and Dad did not survive the surgery, I would have never “heard” the love.
