Last Friday i lost my role model, my hero, my coach and my mentor. That man was my father Colin Hawley. Born in Lunenburg in 1942, Dad joined the Canadian Military in 1960 and married my Mother in 1963. He had three sons in 1964, 67 and 1971. The last one being me. We also adopted a sister in 1991. Dad was the typical man's man. Someone who liked to cut through the bullshit and get right to the point. What a childhood we had! Trips to Keji with the entire family, back the parents childhood homes in Donkin and Lunenburg. Trips all across Canada, we lived in Shearwater, Trenton, Edmonton and Greenwood. We saw all of Canada with the exception of Newfoundland and the NWT, going to the Rocky Mountains in BC, to see the Oilers while we lived in Edmonton. Lots of trips to the States, with the last one being in the summer of 1992. And we were always doing something. Going to hockey games, i remember one of the last big ones being the Habs Vs the Bruins at the Metro Centre just after 9-11. All kinds of security around Halifax and Dad saying, "We are going to that friggin game!" Things never slowed down my father. Even in illness, he always had things he wanted to do, buying a 60 inch television, a Cadallac just this past March. Dad always believed in me and helped me to believe in myself, when i didn't think i would pass high school, there was Dad encouraging me, when everyone laughed at me and said i would never make it through university, there was Dad saying patting me on the back (Nothing made him happier than giving my grad photo to a certain unbeliever, somebody who couldn't even look me nor my father in the face at graduation 2003) Even lately when people were being smug about me going to Japan, there was Dad saying go for it and don't listen to those idiot. He was a proud Dad, always happy to be wearing his Acadia Dad Sweatshirt that i bought him just this past year for Christmas. As a matter of fact he always raided me closet for as much Acadia stuff and other t-shirts that i had, i didn't mind at all. I will miss those car drives, listening to all that twangy country stuff and Dad suggesting that i join the military or do this or do that. I had a relapse a few weeks ago, thinking twice about going to Japan and Dad rose up and put his finger squarely on the end of my beak and said very sternly, "Your going!" He was always there for me, when i needed an extra buck, there he was, when my Jeep broke down, there he was, when a professor lost my political science paper and was going to flop me out of school, there he was. ..all he had missing was a big letter S on his chest somedays..Wow..just wow..i will always miss you Father, your always in my thoughts as i go through life doing the most simplest tasks and wondering, "How would Dad approach this? Or do this?" I must say goodbye, i love you. Don't worry about anything, it is all good.
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