“Him singing that song to me was like the epitome of making me feel loved from my father.”

I also think of the song Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. And that song makes me think of my dad, and he would — we’d have the a.m. radio on back in the day, be down in the barn in the evenings milking cows. And he would — that song would come on the radio, which we’d have turned up loud so you could hear it through the barn. And he knew we didn’t enjoy — we being me and my sisters, enjoy having to be down there at night, working to help him with milking the cows. But he did like to try to make it be fun and when that song came on, I remember him stepping out from between the cows, we had a stanchion barn, and into the aisleway and we would both sing at the top of our lungs “Shalala lalala lalalala deeda la deeda boom boom ba doom.” Anyway, if you know the song it’s a really fun song to sing. And him singing to me “You My Brown Eyed Girl” and I felt so loved. My dad was not a very affectionate man. But when he sang that song and called me his Brown Eyed Girl, I felt so special and loved and appreciated. And it actually wasn’t probably until I was an adult and married myself and — before he started telling me that he loved me. Which was so nice to finally hear him say that. He was always so busy, worked so hard on the farm. To take a moment of time for some tenderness just meant the world. And when I was younger, you know, like ten or twelve years old, him singing that song to me was like the epitome of making me feel loved from my father.

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