Simon Van Booy’s “Raising a Princess Single-Handedly”

Photo taken by Ken Browar. www.kenbrowar.com

 

I have just read Simon Van Booy’s article, “Raising a Princess Single-Handedly.” My eyes were brimming with tears as I finished the last paragraph, not because I was disheartened but because the reminder of  how my own father is the polar opposite  made me echo every memory of my plagued childhood.

Mr. Booy, the author of Love Begins in Winter, is a gifted storyteller and reminds us that however dysfunctional for a moment or time your life may be, from a distance laughter will prevail.

So despite my father’s swift disappearances into bars and facades of fatherhood, I will laugh at the moments in between despair rather than acknowledge what isn’t there.

As a child who once received a baby turkey as an Easter present, only for it to die days later because it was left outside and froze to death, I can appreciate a little laughter years later amidst all the sadness.

Please read Simon Van Booy’s “Raising a Princess Single-Handedly” at www.nytimes.com under Fashion & Style. And visit www.simonvanbooy.com for more information on his novels and himself.