Happy Birthday Daddy!

If a 43 year old woman calling her father "Daddy" is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

My daddy turns over 70 today... I never remember the exact year but I think it's something like 1934 or '38. He's a great guy with a wicked sense of humour. At the same time he sometimes doesn't recognize sarcasm so we also spend a lot of time laughing at with him.

He came to Canada after proposing to my mother via Canada Post. When he arrived in Montreal in 1967 on a visitor's visa a few weeks later, he was given 6 weeks by the government to get married or get out of the country. They got hitched with just a few days to spare. I wondered for years why on earth they got married in November in Canada. They told me they literally didn't have a choice.

He still has a very thick West Indian accent and outdated West Indian ideas even after being here over 40 years. It makes for some great blog fodder. A couple of cases in point:

Fun Weekend with Mr. A
Daddy vs. OnStar

For the longest while he was the only one I knew named Errol besides my brother and Errol Flynn the actor. I've since met two others. Nice guys. Looking back, I kind of wish I'd named Elliott "Errol" but what's done is done.

He beat cancer too, you know. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer a year ago. They found it early and after 6 weeks of treatment, he's as right as rain and back to his crochety old self, driving everyone crazy. Just the way we like it.

So here's to my daddy. He's opinionated and not too worldly for his age but he makes up for it by being a sweetheart and knowing how to make the most potent rum punch you've ever tasted. Its secret? No juice except for the liquid in a jar of maraschino cherries. The stuff he makes will make you go blind. We spend a lot of New Years' Eves stumbling around in the dark. Some call it dancing, Dominicans call it "wining". We all call it a party. Happy Birthday Daddy!

kxx