A LETTER TO MY FATHER

Dear Dad,

I have so many things to thank you for like

taking me abroad to live and visit far flung places when I was young. From Sudan to the hot springs of Japan and everything in between, India, the Maldives, Dubai but most especially Sri Lanka which has always stayed in my heart and will always be the most beautiful country in the world to me although I must add I did enjoy that late night walk down Soho we took when I was 21.

Thank you for giving me the books Johnathan Livingston Seagull when I was eight and the Emily Dickinson book of poetry when you noticed my Sylvia Plath, angst ridden, poetry pinned to my bedroom wall when I was 16. You've given me my love of books and have always taken an interest in my interests like the time you sent away for that Irish Times special offer of 4,000 paintbrushes for €49.99.

Thanks for the letters you've written to me over the years, for your wise advice and for always standing on the sideline of my life cheering me on and for your love. Of that I was never in doubt.

Thanks for loving my Mother so very much and for always putting her first .

Thanks for your sense of humour, for our dinner conversations about things like aesthetics and ethics and generally on subjects which I have a hard time spelling.

You ARE the wordsmith Larry Smith.

And most, most, most of all

Thank you for your hair.

Love Ellen