In May, my three year old daughter and I flew out to Vancouver Island, Canada to spend a couple of weeks with my Dad. It was my daughter’s second time out to th

In May, my three year old daughter and I flew out to Vancouver Island, Canada to spend a couple of weeks with my Dad. It was my daughter’s second time out to the island, though the first time was for my Grandma’s funeral when she was six months old. This email from a father to a child reminds me of the emails my Dad sent us in the lead up to our trip. I’ve never seen my Dad so excited for anything. The day of the flight, he was awake at 1am his local time to start watching the flight schedule and the weather. He wrote lots of reminders, to make sure that I packed Lauren’s identification, Pull Ups and wipes. And he wanted to make sure that Lauren had a window seat where she wouldn’t just stare out at a wing. No no no, his only granddaughter was going to have a view. (Strangely, the day of the flight was cloudy as hell until we got to the mountains, then we flew over the Rockies with barely a cloud in sight. It was as if Grandpa put in his order for weather that would give his granddaughter the best view imaginable). I was pretty scared in the lead up. I hate flying at the best of times and this was my first solo flight with a three year old. Shit, I’m hardly qualified to deal with Webpack when it has a tantrum. This is a bloody human life in a plane. The flight was amazing and reading my Dad’s dispatches every ten minutes added to our excitement. When we landed, my Dad and stepmother were visibly excited. My daughter ran to them and the three of them had a wonderful moment. My Dad’s emails were purely about his excitement. And this dad’s email makes him sound just as excited as my Dad was. I am only going to have one child and I pray that one day, I get to be that excited about my little girl hopping on a flight to visit me. If my excited message happens to go public and it contains some factual issues, I hope to hell that the people who read it recognize it for what it is...I’ll just be a really excited dad who is doing whatever I can to pass the time before I get to see someone I love more than life! :)