Member-only story
FICTION
Why I Turned Father’s Day into Grandmother’s Day
She has been my hero all along
My good friend Joey — he’s the guy who tells me all kinds of statistics so that I can better understand our world — asked me whether I know the percentage of kids without dads.
I didn’t.
So he then gave me the answer. “25% — so one in four.”
It was funny that he felt a need to add “one in four.” I am the original math guy, but the 25% was new to me. Joey told me that because he knew I have often felt sad about not having a dad in my life.
Maybe if I had a dad, I would be better at throwing a ball.
Maybe if I had a dad, I wouldn’t be what I call “spectrumy,” but what the rest of the world calls “neurodivergent” or “autistic.”
Nope.
I have no dad because he was a journalist, hit by a stray bullet when he was covering the Kurds who were fighting with Iraq. At least, that’s how I understand it.
So, with no dad, you might think, “Poor Alfred! What’s he going to do on Father’s Day?”
It’s okay to feel sad for me that I don’t have a dad, but on the topic of Father’s Day, I have had a solution for years.
