Meet My Dad

Ladies and gentlemen, meet my Dad (aka “Earl” to close friends and family; “Ronald” to his co-workers; “Daddy” to 4 of his children; “Umpah Dumpah” to my sister Andrea and myself; “Uncle” to my uncle’s three children; “brother” to his only sibling; and “Grandpa” to his 2 grandsons).

My biological parents are the world’s two most “interesting” people on the face of this earth.  My Mom is by far the more “interesting” of the two, a conundrum actually who declared her second estrangement of me last summer. Because of our “challenging” relationship, AND the fact that she was so critical about my Dad (single mothers, please note) ironically, I just naturally, drifted towards him. And it hasn’t been the smoothest sailing for my Dad and I.  We have butted heads over the years for various reasons but despite this, once the grievances were respectfully aired, acknowledged and corrected, we moved forward and our relationship has remained intact because of this.

It dawned on me recently that I didn’t have ANY photographs of the two of us together. NONE, not even any of those cutesy child photos as he held my hands through the disastrous trip to Disney (I was traumatized upon discovering that Mickey Mouse was 30 feet tall); none of us together during our many beach trips in Jamaica, to Jamaica, New York City or Canada; none of us together at my college graduation; not even a picture of us together when we attended the big Italian festival in New York last year.  Obviously, it wasn’t because he wasn’t present for any of my major life events (Disney included), it’s because when it came to taking photographs, it was either me or him that was holding the camera.

To right this wrong, I asked Robert to take a few pictures of us at one of the local parks recently. This wasn’t the easiest of photo shoots. He wasn’t too happy with me rousing him out of bed at 10 in the morning after working one of his infamous 12 hour night shifts.  And the shoot itself… ehhhh…like me, my father is an introvert, so he wasn’t feeling the camera thing (maybe that’s why we didn’t have any photos before…).  There were a lot of awkward (I wish I had drank some wine) moments in order to get through the 5 minute shoot because of this.  Kudos to him though for his willingness to do it only because I asked.

Here are some of the photos.

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I finally got him to relax a bit with my peace out/rabbit ear trick.

Does he look like Carlos Santana?

I knew I should have left that piece in about how I got him to wear this shirt.

This spot reminded me a little of our property back home. I think this might have also been the point where he told me that he needed to get coconuts because he was making grater cake later that afternoon. Apparently, he’s inherited my grandma’s talent for making desserts. My sister Andrea and I had a REALLY good laugh about this later that evening.

I think this is the one that I will frame and add to my family portraits table.

 One final shot of father handsome. (-:

I am wearing:

Dress:  black maxi dress that I bought at Dress Barn last year

Shoes: Converse All Stars

Jewelry:  Ironically, gifts from my Mom before the season of silence was enacted.

My Dad is wearing:

Top: Chambray button down shirt, because the other one was way too tight.

Pants: dark brown pinstripe dress pants

Shoes: His one pair of good shoes (you know how fathers are).

XoXo, Natasha