The Father He Never Knew

His father was
A hard man to figure!
He had worked hard
All his life,
And earned and kept
Every penny he ever made,
But he seldom smiled
And never seemed to enjoy
The fruits of his labor.
About all that could be said
Was that he kept his family
Fed and housed.
There were no extravagances though.
He chose to live
A simple and austere life
And always did so
In a loveless fashion.
He was usually away on business
And was seldom if ever
There for his family,
And certainly not for his son
Who grew up resenting
His father’s absence
Almost as much
As he detested
His occasional presence.
There was a distance
Between father and son
That was never bridged
By even a single conversation.
The son left
To make it on his own
As soon as he could.
Many years later
The son was notified
That his father
Had passed away,
And he suddenly realized
That he didn’t even know
Who his father was
Or what he did in life.
His father was
A virtual mystery to him.
He felt very odd
Attending the funeral
Of a man he never knew,
And was amazed to discover
Who he was.
His father had amassed a fortune,
Built a local empire
Of businesses and real estate,
And even had a major hospital
Built in his name.
He had become the champion
Of numerous public causes,
Funded a public library,
Supported the local boy scouts,
Given funds for medical research,
Built a home for unwed mothers
And done countless other deeds.
There was a long list of people
And organizations
Citing the charity he had done,
And his son was curious to find
What had been left for him.
The wealth was largely dissipated
Between the charities
His father supported
And only a token amount was left
For his son to manage
And that didn’t come
As much of a surprise.
Besides, the son had already become
Successful in his own right
And didn’t need to depend
On his fathers generosity.
What did astound the son, though,
Was when he discovered
That his father had carried
A picture of him
In his wallet for all those years.
He had kept track
Of his son’s development
And taken pride in the son’s efforts
To make it on his own.
Someone told him how his father
Had privately bragged about his son,
About how he would someday
Be a great citizen
And make a difference in the world
Even without the
Influence and wealth of his father.
That prophesy had already come true.
Somehow the fact that his father
Actually loved and admired him
Made all the difference in the world.
His son could finally accept
That part of himself
That he had constantly battled
And kept buried
For all those years,
The part of him
That was exactly like his father.