“Daddy, a monster scared me in my dream.”
He grabbed pen and paper. “What did it look like?”
Emma talked while her father drew. “Daddy, that’s it! And, you’ve scared the monster right out of me.”
She taped her father’s sketch on her closet door. Emma slept soundly that night.
© Copyright 2019—Present, Jenise Cook, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
First Published: 6 December 2019, The Friday Fix (RIP, on Medium.com)
Image Credit: Limor Zellermayer on Unsplash
The Story Behind this Story
On 6 December 2019, The Friday Fix on Medium.com (RIP) published “Daddy’s Gift”, my tribute to my father who passed away twenty years ago this month.
When I was around five years old, a terrible nightmare woke me up and scared me half out of my pajamas. The following morning, I told my Dad about my scary monster dream. What did he do?
He asked me what the monster looked like, and he drew me a picture of the monster’s eyes.
“Is this what it looked like?”
“Oh, yes, Daddy, that’s exactly what it looked like.” To my surprise, my fear immediately melted away.
My mother threw a fit, angry at my dad for scaring me. But, he didn’t. My mother never understood. My dad did. We shared a special and healing moment together when he literally drew the monster away from me. He gave me a gift that has lasted a lifetime: face my fears and transform them.
Thank you, Dad. I still miss you. I can’t wait to see you in heaven when it’s my turn to go home.
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