My Father's Gift to Me

I came across this in the NY Times this morning...



When I was 12, my father came and spoke to my seventh-grade class. I remember feeling proud, for my rural school was impressed by a visit from a university professor. But I also recall being embarrassed — at my dad’s strong Slavic accent, at his refugee origins, at his “differentness.”


I’m back at my childhood home and reflecting on all this because abruptly I find myself fatherless on Father’s Day. My dad died a few days ago at age 91, after a storybook life — devoted above all to his only child.


Reporting on poverty and absentee fathers has taught me what a gift fatherhood is: I know I won the lottery of life by having loving, caring parents. There’s another reason I feel indebted to my father, and it has to do with those embarrassing foreign ways: his willingness to leave everything familiar behind in the quest for a new world that would provide opportunity even for a refugee’s children.


My father, an Armenian, was born in a country that no longer exists, Austria-Hungary, in a way of life that no longer exists. The family was in the nobility, living on an estate of thousands of acres — and then came World War II.


My father was imprisoned by the Nazis for helping spy on their military presence in Poland. He bribed his way out of prison, but other relatives died at Auschwitz for spying. Then the Soviet Union grabbed the region and absorbed it into Ukraine, and other relatives died in Siberian labor camps.


More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20kristof.html

great story

:)

wow. thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing your family story Ed. Often people with loving, caring parents don't appreciate the gift they have. Some fathers don't appreciate what thier fatherhood could mean to their children and it's not just for their own fulfilment.


I'm a single mother of a 4 year old daughter. Her father does not live in Hong Kong now and the long distance means he doesn't spend much time with her without a great effort on his part and that has not been on top of his agenda. I'm saddened by how much they are both missing out, especially my daughter.


It was delightful to come across your father's story, although what happened to the rest of your family was very sad. You are doubly lucky in that you come from a family with a great deal of love and courage. These real life stories should be told; fathers can be moved to make it a better world for our next generations.


Have you considered writing a book about your family?

Emma, this story relates to a writer from NY Times not the editor of Asiaxpat. The writer Kristof is quite approachable and open to comments via his FB page. He has done some amazing stories besides this one as well.