My second father

I call him “Dad”, affectionately like how I call my biological father. On the first day of marriage, I was the youngest daughter-in-law in a family of 10 children. Full of anxiety, I hesitated before new relationships, afraid that I was not skillful enough to integrate into that big family. My mother-in-law died early, the house lacked a mother’s hand. But then, it was my father - the quiet and tolerant father-in-law, who became the connecting thread, the warm spiritual support, for me to gradually integrate and become familiar with the family.

My father had a special affection for me, perhaps because I was the youngest daughter-in-law who came home without my mother. My father was both father and mother, and a companion. He told me everything: joys, sorrows, or his own worries. From small conversations, the distance between daughter-in-law and father-in-law gradually disappeared. Sometimes, outsiders thought I was my father's youngest daughter.

My father was never strict with me, even though I was clumsy in the kitchen. In the early days, the dishes I cooked were not to my taste, but my father still ate them all and praised them as delicious, as if silently encouraging me. Through each meal, I learned which fish and soup my father liked, and then I learned and cooked better every day.

My father calls me “Little Girl” - a name that only he uses. Every time I go on a business trip, my father often asks my husband: “Little Girl, how many days until you come back?”. Whether I come home early or late, my father waits for me to come home before eating. One time, I came home nearly 2 hours late, and when I entered the house, I saw my father sitting by the dinner table, smiling kindly. That meal was just the two of us, but it was extremely warm, like the day my daughter got married and came home to eat with her parents.

As time went on, Dad got older and older, and his age gradually made him confused. When Dad was 82, he got Parkinson's disease. Dad forgot when he had eaten, forgot where he put his money. I learned how to take care of Dad, learned how to love an old man who was gradually weakening. One time, a neighbor called and said Dad was holding a broom and sweeping the yard all the way to the village entrance in the hot summer noon. Another time, Dad turned on the gas stove to cook rice, just because he was "afraid that Bé would be hungry when she came home from work". That sentence made me choke up. Dad didn't say words of love, but he silently loved his child with the smallest actions.

Soon after, Dad could no longer walk on his own, and he had to do all his activities on the spot. And I was always by his side. I fed him, told him stories to make him laugh, bathed him, and wiped his body with all my gentleness and gratitude. Dad still called me “Little Girl” as before.

One winter day, my father passed away after a peaceful afternoon nap. His face was rosy and peaceful as if he had never experienced any illness. To me, my father is no longer present, but his love, protection and gentle smile will live forever in every meal, in the childhood memories of his children and grandchildren, and deep in the heart of the youngest daughter-in-law who was lucky enough to have such a wonderful father-in-law!

Hello love, season 4, theme "Father" officially launched from December 27, 2024 on four types of press and digital infrastructure of Radio - Television and Binh Phuoc Newspaper (BPTV), promising to bring to the public the wonderful values of sacred and noble fatherly love.
Please send to BPTV your touching stories about Father by writing articles, writing feelings, poems, essays, video clips, songs (with recordings),... via email [email protected], Editorial Secretary Office, Binh Phuoc Radio - Television and Newspaper, No. 228, Tran Hung Dao, Tan Phu Ward, Dong Xoai City, Binh Phuoc Province, phone number: 0271.3870403. The time to receive articles is from now until August 30, 2025.
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Let's continue writing the story about Father with "Hello Love" season 4, so that stories about Father can spread and touch everyone's hearts!

Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/19/172526/nguoi-cha-thu-hai-cua-toi