No matter what...

Today would have been my dad's 58th birthday...  It's been a hard day to wake up to, but so far I'm doing ok...

The story behind the shirt:

When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a shirt made for my dad.  It was a grey shirt with darker grey letters, and on the back, it said "Katie's my Little Girl".  My dad wore the shirt to run in almost every day, and after a few years, it was worn into rags.  When I was in college and didn't have much money, I had a replica (although a different color scheme) made for Dad for Father's Day one year.

On my wedding day, my dad was walking around in a Florida State (where my older brother went to college) t-shirt while everyone else was getting dressed.  I didn't think anything of it, but I was a bit surprised because normally Dad's t-shirt was based on the occasion of the day (if something big was going on in Big Brother's life, Dad would wear an FSU shirt; if it was something about Little Brother, it'd be the high school lacrosse team's shirt; for me, it was usually a Notre Dame shirt).  Anyway, back to my wedding day...when it came time for Dad to put on his uniform, he changed shirts and it appeared he just had on a white t-shirt (he had his uniform jacket on but unbuttoned).  Fast forward to the wedding reception, after the Father-Daughter dance and welcoming all the guests...my dad quietly took off his uniform jacket and reveled the shirt.  He'd kept the whole plan quiet, even from my mom, and none of us knew what he was up to.  I didn't even notice what shirt he was wearing until someone pointed it out to me!  Everyone kept saying, "Look, Scott had that shirt made just for today!"  Well, not exactly, but it certainly was appropriate!!!

And no matter what, I'll always be Daddy's Little Girl!!