Today, my daughter Charlotte Ann Eckman is getting married. I was not, nor were any of my family, invited to her wedding. This includes her grandmother, her aunt Amber, her cousin Rilynn or anyone else on my side of the family. The only person going to your wedding with the same last name “Eckman” is your brother. As I will not be walking my daughter down the isle as her father on her only wedding day of her life, I can’t tell her some things that every father says, or should say, to his daughter on her wedding day. That being the case, I will say it here. First of all, I love you dearly. You have always been the high light of my life. I married your mother because of you when I found out she was pregnant with you. I picked your first name Charlotte and your mother picked your middle name. I remember the first picture I ever saw and you were a beautiful baby. I remember when I was in the Philippines with your mother and you were having trouble breathing, as Manila is a city with a lot of pollution, and I rushed into the hospital with you in my arms, and made a tremendous amount of noise demanding that you get the attention that you needed. It worked as you then had at least 5 people around you, making sure you were taken care of. I will always remember how when you cut your finger on that stair stepper machine in Guam when you were bleeding I took you to the emergency room and held you tightly as you howled in pain as they were stiching up your finger. I held you the entire time and never left you. I will always remember taking you shopping for your dress in the Ginza mall for that dance you went to and how I bought you a beautiful dress, with shoes and those white gloves and how beautiful you looked in that dress. I will always remember you with my aunt Debbie and how the two of you would play and play and have fun, make jokes and how you and your sister Sharie just loved her dearly. I will always remember taking you to see your great grandmother and great grandfather, “mommy Lee” and “papa lee” and how you and your sister would find it so amazing that he owned all of that land in Arkansas and how you just loved spending time with them and how you loved getting hugs and kisses from your Great Grandma Connell and how unfortunate it was that she died just last year at the age of 99, your last great grandparent without you knowing. I will always remember watching you graduate from high school and walking with your class and how happy you were that you were able to walk with your class and how hard I argued with the school board because they weren’t going to let you walk with your class as you had some issues with a CAHSEE test and I refused to let that happen. I remember taking you to get your wisdom teeth pulled and was there with you when you woke up from that because you had to be put to sleep and I drove you home, put you to bed and ensured you took all your meds, changed your bandages in your mouth and made sure you always had ice for the swelling. I remember all those spelling tests you took and did so well on and how I would help you practice by giving you a test on the words the day before the test and any words you got wrong I made you write over and over again until you filled up an entire page with that one word you got wrong. You were upset with me at the time when I did it, but the smile on your face the next day when you got all of those words right on the test certainly made up for it. I will always remember the first time that my mother, your grandmother, held you and how happy she was at the airport when I came home with you that first time in 1993 and how tightly she held you. I remember how happy and beaming you were when my mother gave you her Camaro so you could drive yourself to school everyday and how you told me that was always your favorite car from her and you were excited that you got to have it for your own. It was unfortunate how the car finally got too old and I had to get rid of it because it was unsafe to drive and I was looking out for your well being. I could keep going and going with all of the great memories I have of you. I do hope that the man who is walking you down the isle, Collin Logterman, the man my ex-wife had an affair with, and who happens to not have any kids of his own, says something nice to you as he is walking you down the isle. I will always love you Charlotte and congratulations on getting married my only biological daughter. Daddy will always love you.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:46:14 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015