A Letter to You, Dad 🕊️
30 years. I got to be your little girl for 30 years - and while I’m grateful for every one of them, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
Through my teenage years and into adulthood, we didn’t always see eye to eye - but now I realise it was because we were so alike. They do say the first daughter is the female version of their father. You were strong minded, selfless and one hell of a fighter 🤍
I hope you know how much I cared, even when I didn’t always know what to do. The love was always there, even in the silence.
You showed us how to make a house a home - how to care, how to build something lasting. One promise to you is that I'll always make sure mum is ok and never feels alone. She will always remember just how special and loved she is.
I can’t help but carry a weight of wishing I’d done more in those final few months. I wonder if I could have asked different questions, chased harder for answers or understood things better. My internet tabs are still full of searches, medical terms, and late-night reading.. I was trying so hard to make sense of it all, to be able to help in any way I could 😞
Whilst you won’t be here to see the boys grow up, I’ll forever be grateful that you got to meet them both. I'm sure once Austyn is bigger, they will have the most fun playing with their diggers and dumper truck motors together - something that you used to do with Huxley. I do have a confession though, 'Robbie the Robot' made it to the bin, thankfully you'll understand why on that one 🥲
I hope we can make you proud up there.
Here's a Corona and a toast, to you Dad 🍻
Rebecca Hopkins
29/07/2025