Some words of tribute from daughters and sons for Father’s Day.
The official celebration of Father’s Day in the United States is relatively new. Only in 1966 did President Lyndon Johnson issue a proclamation setting aside the third Sunday in June as a special day for honoring dads. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made Father’s Day an official national holiday.
This special day is our reminder to reflect on fatherhood. Daughters and sons who love and appreciate their fathers make this particular Sunday a party, gifting Dad with presents and cards, backyard barbecues, or visits to a restaurant. Children young and old who have lost beloved fathers to death bless them in their memories. On this day, many of those whose fathers deserted or mistreated them remind themselves to be better people and better parents.
Of course, remembering and appreciating the gifts bestowed by fathers is nothing new. History provides a cornucopia of fathers who won the affections of their offspring, who not only provided them with material necessities but who also instilled in them virtues and habits that carried them through a lifetime of joys and sorrows.
Let’s meet some of these children and hear what they have to say about their fathers.
Old-Timers
In his adopted stepfather, Antoninus Pius, the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121–180 A.D.) found “the most beautiful model of a perfect life.” Most of what we know today of Antoninus comes from the “Meditations,” that handbook of stoicism in which Aurelius again and again praises his stepfather for inculcating in him virtue, wisdom, and the right way of living.
Contrary to the practices of his day, Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) played with his children and gave them all—three daughters and a son—an excellent education. After Henry VIII had More beheaded for refusing to recognize the king as head of the Church of England, the corpse was turned over to the family, but More’s head was mounted on London Bridge. His adoring daughter Margaret procured the head by stealth, confessed when apprehended that she had done so from love of her father, and was freed. She had her father’s head preserved and was later buried with it in her coffin. Gruesome, yes, but surely demonstrative of a daughter’s affections.
By Jeff Minick
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