Father’s Day, 4AM: Cheers, Dad, See You on the Other Side

⚠️ Please read with care: This blog shares personal, sometimes painful experiences. My intention is to support and speak honestly not to harm. I’m not a professional, just someone who understands how hard it can get. If you're struggling, you're not alone please reach out for professional help.

The phone rings at stupid-o’clock. 4am. A voice asks if it’s me as if anyone else would be answering my phone, in my bed, in my life. And I knew what came next. The words arrived like a polite hit-and-run:

He’s gone.

A few weeks shy of ninety. Restless sleep, family at the bedside, curtain down, lights out, roll credits. If endings have to happen, fine do it quietly with the people who love you. Very tasteful. Five stars on TripAdvisor: Would die again.

I wasn’t there. Because New Zealand is thousands of miles away and my body is… well, let’s just say progressive MS is the world’s shittest tour manager. But we did the long game: Skype, WhatsApp, years of digging deep, arguing, laughing, comparing scars across a cable that pretends it’s a conversation and sometimes actually is.

We had a lot in common mostly that we were both adopted at birth, which is destiny’s way of saying: “Good luck out there, kid. Try not to break on re-entry.” I only met him when he came to Cardiff for the millennium. Imagine that: you’re supposed to be dazzled by fireworks, and instead you meet your own face with slightly different mileage.

Later, before my health slammed the travel door shut, Albertine and I clawed together enough cash to fly over and meet the half-brothers, half-sisters, full-size family. Legends, the lot of them made us feel like we’d always belonged, even if it took half a lifetime to arrive. After that it was back to screens and time zones and the emotional juggling act that passes for modern kinship.

Tuesday was his last call. He said he loved me. I said I loved him. Sometimes the Universe lets you finish the sentence before it flips the table.

He used to say it straight: “Crossing the veil.” Fine. He’s crossed it. He’s through. He’s taken the midnight ferry to the Quiet Side. If you’re listening, old man: you’ve still got signal here. I can’t guarantee Tom the Weed-Whacker won’t interrupt, but you know how it is in this house liminal doors everywhere and not a single Do Not Disturb sign that works.

I’m sad. I’m grateful. I’m furious. I’m relieved. I’m all of it. Grief is a nightclub with no fire exits, and the DJ plays your memories until you’re sick. But I’m also proud we found each other at all—two adoptees, late to the party, still managing to say the one thing that mattered before the lights went out.

So cross the veil, Dad. I’ll hold the line here. Frankie will bark at the shadows. Albertine will hold the fort. And I’ll keep watch, like I do, because that’s the job: Watcher among watchers. If you’ve got any good gossip from the other side, you know where to find me. The hedge is still a door. The domes are probably still there. I’ll bring the cheese.

And yes I love you too.

Warlock Dark.... your son

“Grief is a nightclub with no fire exits, and the DJ plays your memories until you’re sick.”

I write in ink and fury, in breath and broken bone.
Through storm and silence, I survive. That is the crime and the miracle.