Unconditional Love

My dad has saved me more times in life than I can count and in turn provided me with safety and love. But to this day, I have 3 memories in which I felt like I was a princess being rescued. This is our story.

It was a cold May morning when a woman was admitted to Saint Charles Hospital. She was in pain and about to give birth. Her daughter who would soon be born into this world had no idea that she was about to live the first 3 years of her life without her father there.

In an INS office at this exact same time, a man sat there awaiting deportation back to Scotland. His work Visa had expired and he was being sent back home. He felt great sadness and despair about having to leave, knowing there was an important reason he needed to be there. He was not going to give up. He would find a way back. At the same time he made his resolve to do whatever it took to return, a baby girl was taking her first breath in life.

The little girl grew very quickly, and the family moved to Montana. The little girl never let anyone of the male sex within 10 feet of her. She knew they weren't her father and she would not let anyone else hold her. For years, this was how it was and her many siblings and mother adjusted to this. Then one day, the most amazing thing happened. Right before the girl's 3rd birthday, she was playing outside in the family's yard, when a repairman came to fix an electric issue in the house. In an instant, the girl knew who the man was and ran up to him hugging his legs and saying "I love you." The man had indeed returned to America and in fact attained a new work Visa, moving to Montana and answered the work call, not knowing it would be reuniting him with his daughter. From that day on, he held her hand and would carry her everywhere, for she was such a tiny thing and every year on her birthday he would tell her the story of his deportation and return to her.

This became her favorite memory all through her childhood and adulthood. At 16, she became a teen mom and after having lost many friends due to her pregnancy, turned to her Father for comfort one day. It was apparent he was struggling with something too. The daughter always knew and they sat down to have one of their many cherished talks, as they often had done. The man looked at his daughter and asked her, "How do you know that everything will be ok?" The daughter could hear the worry in his voice and thought back to that day she had run up to him and clung to him for the first time in 3 years. "I have faith that it will." The man's eyes filled with tears and he hugged his 4-months pregnant 16-year-old daughter, who had just lost so much in life and so developed an even stronger bond between the two.

Throughout her whole life, any time she struggled in life, psychologically or emotionally she would turn to him and say 'I need a hug from my dad' and he was there each and every time. Until one day, she married an abusive man who moved her out of state and it nearly broke the man's heart. He could see he was abusing his daughter and was powerless to help her. The man had a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital. When the daughter was told by her mom, she burst into tears, blaming herself and knowing her leaving had caused it. Again they were separated and did not reunite for nearly 2 years. Due to the abuse from her husband at the time, the daughter was not allowed to call her Mother or her Father and time passed by unbearably slow. She needed one of her dads hugs more than anything and remembered back to the conversation they had had when she was 16.

Finally came the day when she called her Mother to come and help her and her children escape her abusive husband. It took hours to drive to where they were, and many arrangements made to get her and the children halfway to meet them. The daughter not wanting to upset them, turned to her Father and said, "How many times are you going to come and rescue me?" With relief at having her back with them and love in his eyes, the Father looked at her, thinking not of the adult woman she was but instead of the little girl he had hugged for the first time so many years ago and gave her an answer which brought tears to the daughter's eyes. "As long as you are my daughter, I will come and rescue you."

Those are the 3 main times when my dad has had to save me- from pain, from loss, and then from being poisoned to death or beat to death. I am 32 years old and to this day, he is my rock and when I am having a hard time I will still say, "I need a hug from my dad" and he is right there with one, just for me because I am his princess and he is my Dad.