by Lisa Petrarca

Created on: April 25, 2008

NEVER DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

I often wonder what it would be like to have that special relationship that you often hear daughter's have with their father's. To have them look at you with pride and admiration, knowing that under any circumstance daddy will protect them, be there for them and guide them through all their joy, heartache and tears.

I sometimes sit and watch the little girls at the park with their dad's, beaming from ear to ear as they are pushed back and forth on the swing. Knowing that as they lunge forward high into the sky, daddy will be there waiting on their way back down. Laughter echoes across the park as both father and daughter delight in their time together.

I walk down to the beach and see a dad walking his dog with his teenage daughter. The outward appearance to a casual onlooker would show a daughter embarrassed to be seen with her dad, however I see a very different picture. A father teasing and joking with his daughter, tousling her hair as she wrinkles her face, trying to disguise her obvious delight in her father's playfulness. The faade she shows the world as she spends quality time with her dad has now been exposed, as her giggle becomes a boisterous cackle.

High school quickly arrives with and all of the activities, dating, driving, prom. I watch as the girls stand around dressed in their beautiful dresses, hair piled in flowing ringlets on top of their head. Make up, nails, heel's, and flashes of light as the pictures are being snapped one right after another. Each father holding on tightly to his now grown daughter not wanting to let her go off with a boy he hardly knows. Looking into their eyes you can almost hear their thoughts, "Who will protect her if anything goes wrong". The daughters glow with a radiance of peace, comfort, and affection, as they enter the limo and look back adoringly at their devoted fathers.

These are the pictures that are a daily reminder of the relationship, love and affection that somehow passed me by. I never had those special moments...that special relationship that every little girl dreams of. Daddy's little girl is something that somehow jumped past my childhood, teenage years, and adult life, just as a raging forest fire burns hotly through a town with every house being saved except that one individual home. Everyone rushes back to see the wonder and amazement of their life and belongings. As I rush back to stare at the charred, broken and crumbled remains. I quickly turn to look around in awe at the view around me. Daddy's little girl is something that will never be for me...but my life has taught me to take joy in the moments that seem ordinary to others. A life that will be used to encourage, inspire and lift up those girls who will never be "daddy's little girl".

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