I Blinked and He Was Gone

A Brief Moment With My Father

Photo by Adel Gordon

My father and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye. In fact, I was in high school the first time he said, “I’m proud of you.” He didn’t often express feelings of love, but his six other children and I never questioned whether he loved us. We knew he did.

One late night during the summer of 1990, my dad pulled me out of bed and said, “Get up, Mando! We’re building a dog…