Seventy

From the three of us, who you did in fact raise.

Scratch this

Nineteen seventy-nine, outside the workshop, on the first day. Mom took it and never told you.
Nineteen seventy-nine, outside the workshop, on the first day. Mom took it and never told you.

Seventy things, and we could have kept going

  1. You have never once let anyone else carry the heavy bag.
  2. You read the manual. All of it. Before opening the box.
  3. You call the dog 'sir' when you are pleased with him.
  4. You have made the same joke about the ferry since 1998.
  5. You still put on a shirt to go to the market.
  6. You taught all three of us to drive and shouted at exactly none of us.
  7. You know the name of every tree on the road and will tell us again.
  8. You keep string. There has never been an occasion. There will be.
  9. You cried at the wrong bit of the film and denied it.
  10. You answer the phone as though it might be someone important, and it is always us.

Seventy years, abridged

  1. In the middle of a storm, which you have never let us forget.

The evidence

1 of 4

Mostly you, mostly squinting, mostly holding something you have just fixed.

Dad

70 candles

Blow them out — we will wait

Do you remember

Question 1 of 3

What did you say when the boat took on water the first time?

Things you have said, verbatim

It is not broken. It is between states.

on the washing machine

This is you when

You would hate this. Press it anyway.

Seventy. You have been the steadiest thing in all three of our lives, and none of us has ever properly said so out loud, so we have written it down instead where you cannot interrupt.

Ryan, Megan and Kate