My Daddy, My Hero — A Love That Never Leaves

There are days I wake up and forget, just for a moment, that you’re gone—just long enough to think I might pick up the phone and hear your voice, feel your arms around me, or catch that familiar twinkle in your eyes that always made me feel safe. But then the ache returns—the same one that’s lived in my chest since the day you left this world—and I remember: you’re not here in the way you used to be. And yet… you are. Because I hear you in the quiet. I feel you in the wind. I sense you in the sky when it turns that perfect shade of blue that you loved. I hear your wisdom echoing in the words I whisper to my husband when he’s struggling, and in the strength I somehow still find when I don’t know how I’m going to keep going. I remember you saying, “I’m watching you from the moon.” I didn’t understand what that meant at the time, but I do now. You meant you’re still close, even if I can’t see you. That you’re in the space between breaths, the pause between heartbeats, the stars above, and the tears that fall when I miss you too much to speak.

I think about what you gave me—not just the smiles, the laughter, and the bedtime stories, but the way you believed in me. You gave me confidence before I ever knew what it was. You gave me values to hold on to when the world became hard. You gave me strength I didn’t know I had until life tested me again and again. You were my first hero—the one who taught me to tie my shoes, to drive a car, to stand tall even when I felt small. The one who always made me feel like I mattered, even when I wasn’t sure I did. You held my hand through scraped knees, heartbreaks, and big life choices. And now you’re not here to hold it anymore. Some days that truth hits me like a wave—out of nowhere, all at once, impossible to fight. Other times it’s a quiet ache that just lingers in the background of everything. But even though I can’t see you, even though I can’t hear your voice, I still feel you.

It’s like you’re in my tears—the ones that fall in the silence of night when I miss you most, the ones that come when I wish you were here to see the life I’m fighting to maintain, the ones that carry a hundred unspoken things—gratitude, sorrow, love, longing. We’re a million miles apart now, Daddy, and sometimes the distance feels unbearable. It pulls at my heart like an invisible thread stretched too tight, like an empty bubble rising in the sky, fragile and beautiful and gone too soon. I want it to stop—I want the pain to go away, the missing to end—but I know deep in my heart you’re still with me. You’re in the way I love, in the way I care, in the way I fight to keep going even when it hurts. You may be gone from this earth, but you’re not gone from me. In the light of the blue sky, when I feel small or afraid, I remember what you would say: “You’re stronger than you think.” And somehow, I find my strength again. Because I know you’d want me to. Because I know you’re proud of me, even when I feel like I’m falling apart.

I think about the moments we had, and they feel like gifts now—precious, sacred, irreplaceable. I think about the way you laughed. The way you called me “princess” or “baby girl.” The way you sat beside me at every turning point in my life, never letting me feel alone. And that’s what I hold on to now. Because even though you can’t hold my hand, I feel your hand on my heart. Even though I can’t call you, I still talk to you. Even though I can’t hear you, I still listen for you—in the whisper of trees, in the crackle of the fire, in the words that come when I least expect them. I carry you with me. Always. I see your courage when I look at my own resilience. I see your heart in the way I refuse to give up. I see your love in the way I keep choosing hope—again and again, even when it’s hard.

You are the steady presence I didn’t know I’d need so much after you were gone. And you are still my hero. Still my guide. Still the one I look up to when I’m lost in the dark. You taught me how to live with honor. You showed me how to love without conditions. You taught me how to be someone others could lean on. And now, in your absence, I live what you taught me. So when the tears come, I let them. Because I know they’re just love with nowhere to go. I know they’re proof of a bond that even death couldn’t break. And I know that somehow, through it all, I am not alone. Not ever. You’re in the sunrise. You’re in the stillness. You’re in the dreams that come when I least expect them. And every time I close my eyes and picture your face—smiling, calm, full of love—I feel a little less afraid of this world. Because I know you’re watching me from the moon. Because I know you’re still proud. Because I know—no matter the distance—I will always be your girl. And you will always be my daddy. Forever.