How Literacy Deepened the Relationship with My Father
My dad’s discovery of audiobooks changed everything.
Growing up, I loved yet feared my dad. A strong man who worked with his hands, he rarely spoke unless he was regaling us with tales of his youth around the dinner table.
I yearned for his approval but didn’t know how to win him over. He insisted each of his children have a college education so that they could be more successful than him. Knowing how important this was to him, I worked hard to be a straight-A student, hoping to make him proud.
Outside of these efforts, I felt disconnected from my dad. He put in long work hours, especially once he started farming full-time. Some nights he came in the back door after dark hunched over by fatigue; his skin tone nearly gray from exhaustion and hunger. As he sipped his cup of hot coffee and rested at the kitchen table, I’d offered to rub his neck. He’d thank me for the gesture as he shooed me away. I loved him with a ferocity, yet couldn’t figure how to be close.
My dad had a secret, one we, as a family, never discussed. He was illiterate.
Although he could sign his name and write out a check, he could neither read or write. I never saw him hold a book or pick up a magazine. If he had to read anything more than a…
