Getty Owl Foundation

Love, Dad

From Mark:

Getty, here we are… over 5 years together, and I couldn’t be happier. Our time together, your love, and your influence mean more to me than you know.

Today, you know me as Dad — the one who rolls in after work to give you love, smoochies, giggles, dance parties, baths, and story time. I give you evening breathing treatments while Mom catches a breath of her own. I give you food, warmth, and comfort, and tuck you in. I am comforted by your steady bipap rhythm and the knowledge that, for one more day, Mom has filled your day with love, learning, and experience in my absence, and you have all you need to stay healthy and happy. I hold your little hand, and we sleep.

What you don’t know is the profound impact you have had on my life. You didn’t know the man I had been — 40 years in the making before you arrived on the scene.

In relatively short time, you have brought me depths of love, caring, and happiness I never dreamed imaginable. You have drawn from me previously unknown confidence, courage, strength, and perseverance. You have shown me the true meaning of selflessness and devotion. You have breathed new meaning into each moment of my life that flows through me and finds itself into everything I think, feel, and do. You have opened doors to passions previously unrecognized, ignored, and unknown. I have learned to appreciate and embrace each moment, to live as I ought to live, see as I ought to see, dream as I ought to dream, love as I ought to love.

From you, I the embrace the gifts of love.

Through you, I’m no longer just a man — I’m your Dad.

I love you.