Taking My Dad Fishing

“Son, you have to get over here now! You won’t believe the amount of fish down there!” exclaimed my dad over the phone, nearly bursting with excitement. “There are hundreds of ´em, and you can see them all from the bridge!”

My family and I were on vacation in the United States at the time, staying with my mom at her house. My dad was calling from his tiny room at his assisted living facility. I was 38-years-old, and he was 74.

As I listened to him talk, I chuckled inside. After all these years, he wants me to take HIM fishing?

“You leave that boy at home though,” he added, referring to my 7-year-old son. “It could be dangerous here for him.”

Inwardly, I grumbled. How I would have loved to have gone fishing with him just once when I was little! Now he wants me to take him fishing?

I was in the middle of all my thoughts about the lousy dad he´d been when I heard a still, small voice whisper, “He thinks he is taking you fishing. He wants to make up for all those years..”

So pushing my thoughts aside, I responded, “Okay, I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

***

When I arrived, I couldn’t believe how my dad was dressed. I wasn’t sure if we were going fishing or to church.

He was freshly bathed and shaved, smelled like he had just taken a bath in cologne, wearing dress pants and a pressed shirt with his best dress shoes. I guess living at the retirement village didn’t require him to have outdoor “fishin’ clothes”.

“Come on, son, let’s get down there! You won’t believe the fish!” He fidgeted with his walker, as I picked everything up, and we started down to the path to the river.

Slowly walking beside him, I observed him as he struggled a bit. Thirty-eight-years-old and this is the first time I am going fishing with my dad, I thought to myself.

On our way to the river behind the retirement home, we ran into another resident. “Hello, Tom, this is my boy,” my dad beamed.

I began to wonder what would it have been like to have gone fishing with him at 5 or 6 years old. Then I thought about my boys and thanked God for them. Cael was 7, Andru was 3, and I had already taken them fishing several times that summer. Would my dad have been as patient with me as I try to be with my boys?

I doubted.

After several minutes and a lot of effort on the part of my dad, we arrived.

“You brought worms didn’t you, son?”

“Yep!” I laughed inwardly, as I imagined him trying to put one on the hook.

He took the pole I had brought for him. “Son, can you put a worm on for me?” he asked. “This ole’ thumb don’t work anymore.”

Is it that or does he just not want to get his fingers dirty? I wondered incredulously. I was pretty sure it was the latter.

I quickly put a worm on for him and went about doing the same for myself.

“Son, can you cast this out for me? I don’t know how to work this modernized thing you brought me.”

I grabbed his pole and quickly got his line in the water and returned to getting my worm on the hook.

“Hey, looky there! I got one already,” he chuckled, as he reeled it in.

“Not a bad one!” I said.

“Son, can you take it off for me? My hand doesn’t have enough grip to hold on to that slippery thing.”

Feeling myself becoming infuriated, I took a deep breath. It was then that I realized what I had previously suspected… I was taking my dad fishing, not the other way around. As far as he was concerned, the years had already passed him by. He had at least five children and hadn´t been a father to any of them. He now realized it was too late. His opportunity to do such fatherly activities with me had also passed, but today gave rise to a new opportunity…

Many years before that day, I had forgiven my father for abandoning me and asked him to forgive me for not being a good son to him. God had showed me that being a son was a role He had given me regardless of whether or not the man had ever been a father to me.

I thought about that as I looked at this old man who, according to his actions, had never given two cents for me, and all I felt was pity for him. And in an instant, my anger melted away.

So I took advantage of this new opportunity. I put down my pole, took off his fish, put on another worm for him, cast his line in the water, and took my dad fishing.

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