Did Your Father Die When You Were Just A Kid?

When Your Father Died Too Soon: I Miss My Dad
by Frosty Wooldridge

This request offers you an opportunity to express yourself concerning your father’s death
when you were a young man or young lady. Or share this request with someone you
know who experienced this event.

If you lost your father to an early death when you were between the ages of 8 and 18, you
and I possess much in common. Or you may have lost him through divorce or he
abandoned your family. My 46-year-old father died instantly of a heart attack when I
was 17. His death changed my life and my brothers’ and my sister’s, radically, from
happy kids, kids who played sports with their dad, kids who loved their dad, kids who
enjoyed the love of their dad—to instantly “no dad” ever again in our lives. I remember
that day when my father’s best friend came up to me in the parking lot to tell me the
news. He leaned into the car window, “Frosty I don’t know how to tell you this, but your
father died while umpiring the Albany High School game today.”

From that point on, our lives changed from normal to not normal. From happy to vacant.
From our dad being proud of us when we hit a homer or scored a basket to no dad to be
proud of us anymore. No more movies and popcorn with dad. Life and circumstances
ripped our father out of our lives. It changed the way we thought, acted and lived our
lives. It changed my sister’s life dramatically from a happy girl to withdrawn, overweight
from eating food for comfort and socially out of sorts. One of my brothers became angry
at everything and lost his sense of balance in the world.

Over the years, I have wished I could talk to my dad as a man, bicycle with him one day
for a chat or sit by a campfire. Always something in the back of my mind. Millions of
other men and women have lost their fathers, too, at a young age. They may feel the same
way. Each of us who lost a father shares a heartbreaking fate that only we can feel and
only we can share.

You’re invited to write an essay of 1,000, or 2,000, or 3,000, or 5,000 words describing
your feelings, your pains, your triumphs or your sadness of losing your dad between the
ages of 8 and 18. That’s when the most impact hit you because you were close to him
and he was around the house and your connection was deepest and most profound. Write
about the moment when you learned of his death. Write about your shock. Write about
how you felt and what it meant to you then, and what it means to you today. Write about
how it has affected you over the years. Write about your feelings. Write about how you
coped. Write about how you didn’t or haven’t coped. Write about how you reacted to
drugs, depression, booze, aberrant behavior, etc. Write about what it did to your life path.
Write whether you liked him or not. Got along with him or not. Write his good and bad
points. How did it affect you spiritually and how did it affect your concept of God?
Fairness?

After you’ve written your story, take some time out to write a letter to your dad. Thank
him or question him or share your feelings of anger with him if you have any. Then,
write a letter back to you from him, as if he were alive. You’ll find it VERY therapeutic.
You’ll probably cry along with a few other emotions. But after this entire exercise, you’ll
find that you’ve gotten a lot of feelings out on the table…and you will release them. If
you want, I will send you my letter to my father and his letter back to me. It’s very
cathartic. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. I will edit your essay to perfection.

I am writing this book by weaving your story along with other men and women, and
connecting the dots. We intertwine our lives with the death of our fathers. We share a
common bond of pain, of anguish and loss of the most important man in our lives.
Millions of men and women lost their fathers to an early death. Your story will give
them comfort, hope and ideas on how to deal with their pain. Show how you healed,
dealt with your pain or how you haven’t.

Once it publishes, you will receive a copy of the book. You may leave your name out of
it for your own privacy or I will only use your first name only or your full name if you
like. You can write this essay to get every detail of your story. If you know of other men
or women who would like to share their story, please forward this request to them. They
can be any age. I can email this request, too.

Thank you for making this book possible: When Your Father Died Too Soon—I Miss
My Dad.
Life and light,
Frosty Wooldridge, Golden, CO, [email protected]