By Lizz Bottrell, Citizen Staff

Every year as Father’s Day approaches, I attempt to come up with a new way to thank my Dad for everything he did for me over the past year. With all the changes in my life in the past while, I’m sure he’s helped me more over the last 16 months than he has since I was a baby, so I know I need to do something extra special this year. As I was thinking, I couldn’t come up with a better idea than writing my column about him this week so that all my readers knew just how awesome my Dad is. So that’s what I did. Enjoy.

I have a very unique relationship with my Dad. He’s played so many roles in my life that he has to be the most dedicated father I know. He’s been a father, a mother, a friend, and a therapist - just to name a few.

I just turned eight when my parents separated and I, along with my two younger sisters, ended up living with my mom. Back then, when a lot of parents separated or divorced, if the children lived with the mother, many fathers seemed to remain distant.

Not mine.

Even through my persistence in not wanting to see him for a few years after the separation (I blamed him), he was equally persistent in insisting that I should see him. Once I matured some and understood the situation better, I spent tons of time with my Dad. See, my Dad was one of those cool Dads - he even brought me to a concert of the ‘Flavour of the Month’ boy band, something that must have been dreadful for him. But he didn’t care how terrible the band was, he seemed happy just spending time with me.

When high school hit and I decided to live with him, he made the ultimate sacrifice for me by moving away from the farm and into town. I’m sure he had other reasons for why he made that decision, but he always told me that it was for me to be closer to school. Not many Dads would do something that cool for their daughter.

Since it was just me and my Dad, many nights he had to play the role of a mother as well by cooking meals (he’s a great cook), reminding me do my chores (against my will) and consoling me whenever I fought with my girlfriends at school, whenever a boy broke my heart or whenever I felt like a social outcast - which happened pretty much on a weekly basis, it was high school after all. Oh, and not to mention he recruited one of his female cousins to give me the birds and the bees talk because well, he didn’t want to go there, and I don’t blame him.

Years later when I think of all he’s done for me and all he continues to do for me, I don’t know if there would ever be a way to properly thank him. I can proudly say that much of my drive and ambition began as me wanting to make him proud of me, which I’m pretty sure he is.

As I mentioned, he’s helped me a lot over this past year as I made some pretty big changes in my life. But with all the things he helped me out with, the most important thing he helped with was developing independence to the point where I didn’t need him for everything, which I know was very hard for him to do. So for everything you’ve done Dad, thank you.