Dear Dad, 

I am sorry I cannot be there today to join you and our friends and family in celebrating the first 60 years of your great life.

It isn’t very hard to find good things to say about my Father. The first time I realized how fortunate I was to be his son was in primary school when my friends would tell me how lucky I was that my Father was always around to play tennis and cricket and soccer and everything else with us; many of them were not so lucky.  He was affectionately known to them all as Mr. P.

Something most kids look for in their Father is a good role model. Well Mr. P excelled here.  I have learnt many great qualities from him; compassion, great sense of humour, not judging a book by its cover and many others.  Of course there are also those personal traits that as you are growing up you swear blind you will never pick up, but one day you wake up you realize you are just like him and actually that isn’t such a bad thing after all. Recently my girlfriend and I were getting ready to go out for a nice dinner while on vacation and as we were about to head out I decided my fingernails needed some beautification. With a slightly exasperated tone in her voice my girlfriend demanded to know why I had decided now was a good time to cut my fingernails? I smiled and calmly replied, “I don’t know, you will have to ask my Father.”

I have also learnt many skills from him such as playing sport, hiking and handling myself at work. He also tried his best to teach me some tradesmen skills, such as when you are fixing something you first need to break it even more than it already is broken before you can actually fix it properly, how to scoop leaves out of the pool during a gale force southeaster and still win and how to look after your things so you never need to get a new tennis racquet, set of golf clubs, lawn mower or bicycle, despite the advances in technology that have taken place over the 15 years of ownership.  Global warming started in our front garden every time the lawnmower was started up. As crazy as this might sound, it still did teach me the value of money, looking after what you have and a respect for others. My Father was always generous to his family and friends and also to random strangers, even going so far as provide transportation in the early hours of the morning to a 6’3″ transvestite. It was such a philanthropic act it became an urban legend and made its way onto the back pages of the Financial Times. Speaking of helping strangers, another way he gave back to the community was when he started giving up his free time on Saturday afternoons to go visit the prisoners at Pollsmoor prison.  Thinking about it now, his golf handicap did start coming down at about the same time and the prison does have a public driving range. I’m sure that is just a coincidence.

I know you are my Father, but I think you are the best looking 60 year old I know, except maybe for Adré, but that is probably from eating lots of char-grilled chicken and using a secret cream he isn’t telling the rest of us about. I hope you have a fantastic birthday party and want to thank you for having been such a great Father and by the attendance here today you can see that you have touched the lives of many people in such a positive way.  I miss having you around on a day to day basis. Thank you Mr. P.

Love