My father The Ladder and The Moon

Mar 5, 2001 - © Mary Pantazis

* Note--- This article first appeared at Themestream. I am concerned that Themestream is closing and wanted to save this article. I have updated it slightly showing how it relates to special education.

My father the Ladder and the Moon by Mary Pantazis December 28, 2000

I remember when I was a little girl I would look up at the moon and I would ask my father to get it for me. My father would put me on his lap and hold me and he would say, "If I had a ladder that was tall enough I would get you the moon".

My father meant that. My father wanted me to have everything I wanted. If I asked for something, my father gave it to me. As I grew older, I learned to use this to my advantage when I needed money for something.

When I was a teen-ager I went through a phase when I didn't want my father to keep giving me stuff and I got my own job and used my own money for the things I wanted. The older I got the less I wanted to take from my father. He would offer money sometimes and I would turn it down. When I got married and moved away he would often call me to see if I needed anything. He even asked my husband if we had everything we needed.

After every visit from my father we would find a 50.00 bill or a 100.00 bill hidden somewhere in the house. I knew it was from him. As the babies started coming this occured more often. He loved to visit my children. And he would come and see them and he would leave money for them. Before I had children, I got a kitten and my Dad came to visit me to see my kitten and as he was leaving he dropped a 20.00 bill on the counter and told me to buy something for the kitten.

My dad grew up without a father. He lived with little money and always was in need as a child. I am sure he had nights when he was hungry because his mother didn't have enough money to feed her four children. He didn't want this for me. I never wanted for anything. My father was special in another way. My father was disabled. He had the rare adult form of Muscular Dystrophy. It struck my father when he was only 25 and by the time he was 40 years old my father was retired due to his disability.

The copyright of the article My father The Ladder and The Moon in Special Education is owned by Mary Pantazis. Permission to republish My father The Ladder and The Moon in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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