Dad is my Superman

This Father’s Day I want to share with you my relationship with my dad. His name is Romeo Guevarra.

When I was growing up with my brother and 3 younger sisters, my dad looked after us whilst mum worked full time as a primary school teacher.

In short, Dad was our primary caregiver and what we fondly called the “house-husband” (as opposed to a ‘housewife’) *smile

Mum made him quit his job from the airforce when we (the children) arrived on the scene.

I have so many fond memories of Dad caring for us, feeding us, bathing us, taking us to school, to church, to the playground, to the movies.

The one unforgettable experience I have with my dad is when he went beyond cleaning his  4 little girls’ hair which was infested with lice. Ewww… but he did it. He made us put coconut oil in our hair and then waited in a queue to be combed until all our nits fell off accompanied by hair strands (ouch!). It was a horrid experience. How I wished there was headlice shampoo then

Dad was not only our official hair care specialist, he was also Superman who’d carry me in his strong arms to bed whenever I fell asleep in the couch before he transformed back to being our hygiene assistant to look after our grimy toenails. ewww

Dad is such a loving and gentle caring dad. I miss him so much. We’ve been apart for almost six years now since I left the Philippines and moved to Sydney to embark on a new life of my own. I have only been home twice since I left. First was when mum was very sick and the other during mum’s funeral when she lost her battle with cancer.

Dad is my only parent now. He is both dad and mum to us. He looks after my disabled brother with help from my other younger sisters. One of them is a nurse too. I am planning to go home to the Philippines for Christmas this year to see dad and my siblings and spend some quality time with them.

Life is short I realised. I want to show Dad how much he means to me and that he is loved. Dearly.

Before I end this post, I also want to share this music video by famous singer-songwriter (also a dad), Steven Curtis-Chapman called ‘Cinderella’.

I cried when I first watched this video at my friend’s church. He dedicated this song to his adopted daughter from China, Maria Sue, whose life was cut short from a tragic accident. I hope every daddy’s girl could relate to this as I have.

To my Dad and all dads in the world, Happy Father’s Day!