There will be people, unfortunately, who try to define your father by his hardest moments. They will whisper or write things that flatten a complex, breathing, loving man into a single sentence. Do not let them. You have the truth. The truth is the way he looked at you when he was proud. The truth is the smell of his cologne on his jacket that you still can't bring yourself to wash. The truth is the sound of his laugh—a real, deep, belly laugh that only you and your family got to hear when the guard was down.
You were, and always will be, his greatest achievement. michael ciancaglini daughter
As you move forward, you will notice him in strange places. You’ll hear a song from his era and freeze. You’ll catch a whiff of rain on hot asphalt and remember a Sunday afternoon. You’ll see a man with his little girl on a playground, lifting her up to reach the monkey bars, and your heart will swell and break at the same time. That’s him. He’s not gone. He’s just in the echoes. There will be people, unfortunately, who try to