DAYS TO REMEMBER

EPISODE TWO: FATHERLY

I’ll admit I was terrified; until that moment I saw her eyes. I became a different man, when I held her tiny hands in mine and then I looked over at my wife sleeping on the hospital bed, it was magical. At that moment, my heart skipped a beat and I felt everything change.

I held my daughter in my arms and a tear dropped from my eyes. It was such an emotional moment for me. “I was a father”.

“FATHER” sounded good in my ears. I couldn’t believe I was holding my own to take care of. So innocent she was, I promised to take care of her and be there for her always. I promised she would feel a father’s love and that was what I was going to give her.

We spent a few days in the hospital, until the day of discharge. Being home felt different, it wasn’t only my wife and I. It was me, my wife and our daughter, Melody.

It was all new to us, waking up in the middle of the night, getting her back to sleep, milk bottles, diapers, crying, diapers and more diapers. It wasn’t as easy as I anticipated, because I thought it would be all roses and petals. I guess the TV shows were wrong.

My wife, Tess, on the other hand, was a pro, she made it look so effortless. For the first time, mom, I would say she handled little Melody very well.

Tess resigned from her place of work because she wanted to be a full-time mom. Now, because I wasn’t really comfortable with her not working anymore, I just accepted what she wanted, because it was going to be good for our Melody and our other children to come. Yes, we hired a part-time nanny, but a mother and daughter bond was all she ever hoped for and so did I. Besides, my job was well paying to take care of all of us.

In as much as being a first time dad was stressful, Tess always complimented me on how I juggled work, helping her with Melody in the evenings, sometimes cooking and some house chores and that motivated me.

What I enjoyed most about it was watching Melody grow right in front of me. They were the first words I heard her say and I remember them like it was yesterday. Her smile always brightened my days. Two years went by in a flash and everything seemed to be going well, until one Wednesday morning(date) when I set off for work, I was welcomed by a distressed looking group of management staff in the board room. I hadn't really paid attention to the company’s affairs because I wanted to spend time with my family. Unfortunately, that took a drastic turn. Apparently, our top investor backed out a year ago and the staff felt they could handle it without letting me know, but that decision marked the fall of the company. We were bankrupt and we had other investors that we were supposed to pay back. This was the worst scenario I had ever encountered as CEO. I wished to my bones that it was a silly prank, but after presenting the documentation it was official, we were doomed. I stormed out of the boardroom and rescheduled the meeting to another day.

I went back home with the thoughts of what I was going to do. Because it wasn’t like I was any other employee in the company, it was my damn responsibility!

When I got home, I went straight to the office in the attic and locked myself there. Tess, Melody and Agatha, the nanny, went grocery shopping. I felt my life spiraling downwards. How were we going to survive? Tess wasn’t working anymore and we would start living on savings. And once the savings are done, we will be done. This isn't what I pictured my life with my family being like. Before I could get my thoughts together, Tess came in.

“Hey honey.”

“Hey, how are you?”

“I'm fine, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me,”

She paused for a while and I could feel her stare, but I didn’t want to look back at her.

“Wait… you look stressed. Is everything okay?” She asked,

“Yeah, don’t worry about…”

Before I could finish, Melody came bursting in screaming “Dada.” Seeing her just made me want to work harder for a solution for the company. I lifted her, threw her in the air and she smiled through her four little front teeth. We made our way out of the attic. Agatha took Melody to have some snacks while Tess and I stayed in the room.

“Honey, now don’t lie to me, what’s really going on?”

I let out a deep breath because I didn’t want her to panic or feel bad about her not working and so I let out a blunt smile and looked her in the eye.

“What is it you wanted to tell me?”

“It’s nothing baby, it can wait.”

“Are you sure? I mean, as long it involves you, it is so important to me.”

“Don’t worry, my love. We’ll talk. Now let me run your bath and fix you something to eat.”

A few weeks passed and I got more and more stressed because how everything was spiraling downwards was surprising. We lost two other investors who we were still owing amounts of money.

What was this?

How was it going to be fixed?

Because I had nowhere to get the kind of money that was required.

During that time, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my family because I spent most of my days locked up in the attic beating my head and still nothing seemed to be going right.

The following morning, I rushed to work to be met by a few resignation letters. Yes, the company was crushing.

I felt like it was the end. I mean, it became hard to keep up.

I went back home irritated and what I arrived at, what was the last thing I needed at a moment like that…