My father's trip to Bountiful

After watching this wonderful film, it reminded me of something I did several years ago with my dad, and made me feel even better about having done it.

Growing up, I heard all kinds of stories from my dad about his life growing up with his 2 brothers; how violent his father was; how he'd climbed out a 2nd floor window onto the roof of their house to get away, or hid in a coal bin in the basement; how he nearly successfully leaped from his garage to the neighbor's...nearly; how he once, as a little kid, chased after his mother on the street, begging her not to leave; how she died when he was only 10. And on and on the stories go.

But I never had any pictures to put these events to. So one crisp Saturday December morning, the year my dad turned 80, I told him not to make any plans.

I picked him up and we stopped by the home of an even older man that he had been helping and spent a few minutes visiting with him. Then I took him to a diner for breakfast. (my father LOVED breakfast!)

Then off we went to the neighborhood where he grew up. I researched the street name that I remembered him talking about. Turns out, he lived in THREE different houses on that street.

I got to see how insanely steep the roof was that he climbed out on as a kid. And how impossible it would have been for him to pull off his "Tarzan" stunt from the garage roof.

I saw where he stood in street as he pleaded with his mother not to leave him and his 2 brothers. I saw the house he was living in when she passed away despite only being 34-years old.

And I saw the joy he had to see that neighborhood again, despite some of the painful memories.

And probably most importantly, I knew that he knew that I did this because I understood him, and loved him.

My dad passed away less than 5 years later. But I have a photo I took of him that day by a particularly sentimental "landmark" that he shared with me. And it's a treasure to me.

It felt good at that time to know that he knew I cared enough to take him there, and that I was interested in his reminiscences. It felt good to do something thoughtful for him, something I knew he would absolutely bask in.

But this film gave me a deeper understanding of what it probably meant to him. So it feels good all over again.