gifts men give women

A while back I asked if any of you had a gift story that had to do with dads that is close to your heart. When Aedriel sent this one, I got pretty teary. In fact, you might want to have a tissue within quick reach.

Father’s day can be bittersweet sometimes, for many different reasons. But I thought Aeriel’s story might be a nice way to pay tribute to the men who are great fathers, the men who we love and adore and miss.

(Aedriel is currently a Giver’s Log sponsor. You can visit her’s blog here and her shop here. Thanks for sharing this with us, Aedriel.)

“My Dad whom I was very close to died 5 years ago from melanoma. As an avid fly fisherman/outdoorsman, search and rescue volunteer, runner he was always diligent about using sunscreen so it was a shock to us all when he was diagnosed and died only a couple months later. I miss him dearly.

At his grave site there was a brick with a silver plaque that simply stated D DIXON with the plot number. Too much time passed with this brick and by the time we arranged for a gravestone I was suddenly going to miss the brick. I asked my step-mom for the brick when it was going to be replaced. She was out of town when the gravestone was put in and the brick was apparently thrown away. I was so upset about this. This simple brick was more my Dad than the gold-lettered gravestone.

My husband, Matt, never met my Dad and he’s always been amazing about listening to my stories about him or wiping my tears when my heart aches. Two Christmases ago we agreed to give gifts to each other that didn’t cost anything…or cost very little. He was so excited about his gift to me. I opened the most precious gift anyone has ever given to me that Christmas.

It was a brick identical to the one that was thrown out. Apparently Matt was going to buy a brick and have a metal plate made to resemble the original. When he went to the cemetery to find out what was on it the man that makes the bricks left Matt waiting there and came walking out with a duplicate brick. He handed it to Matt and told him it was free.

We now have the brick under a pinon tree and that’s my little area to think about my Dad. Matt has lovingly planted flowers under the tree to make it a bit of a Dad sanctuary. ;)

My Dad’s name was David. And I now have my own little David. I see my dad’s eyes in my David every day and that helps me know that he is with me.”

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Here’s to a great dad, and to the great husband (and dad) who understood what that man meant to his wife, and here’s also to the next generation. Thanks for sharing this, Aedriel.

It would be great to add a few more stories to this series that have to do with dads. If you have something that you think might work, I’d love to hear it, you can send me a quick email and share your story.

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You are not going to believe this proposal story. I had to read it twice just to be sure I read right. Thanks for sending this, Dawn. You have one thoughtful man.

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“Normally for Christmas we don’t get each other many gifts, but one year we decided to get each other massages. The package included a manicure so I got my nails done too.  After we got home we were relaxing on the couch, opening Christmas cards and waiting for my nails to dry. Brian got up and came back with a poem.

Ever since we first started dating he’s been writing me poems and giving them to me on special occasions. When he gave me the first poem he gave me a homemade box with it. He expected there would be more where that came from so I needed a place to keep them.

Then he asked me if I really kept all of his poems all these years.  I said OF COURSE!  He said he hasn’t re-read a single one since he wrote them and he said, “I bet if you read all of them in a row you could get a really good overview of the history of our relationship.”

So he got up and got the box with all the poems.  He started reading each one and then just putting it on the floor!  At this point I said, “Brian—DO NOT get them out of order!”  He told me what he always tells me, “Calm yourself.”  So we read through all the poems taking time after each one to remember what was going on in our lives and in our relationship.

So we’re just lying there on the couch and Brian says, “You know…I did this on the first one, so I had to keep doing it, but I really don’t like it….I made the first letter bigger than all the rest.” That’s when I noticed that three of the poems that were lying next to each other spelled out Y-O-U if you just read the first letter.  And then I hopped up on the couch and looked down and saw that if you read just the first letter of each poem it said W-I-L-L   Y-O-U   M-A-R-R-Y   M and I started freaking out, saying “That’s not on purpose. Is that on purpose?  How can that be an accident???”

He said he had one more poem for me, dated for today.  When I got to the end it said, “Will you please guarantee my happiness and say you’ll be my wife.”  Then I put the paper down and looked up to find him on the floor, one knee with the ring box open.  He said, “Dawn, I love you, will you marry me?”  Well of course I screamed and hugged him and said yes and everything.   So every poem he gave me over those three and a half years was just the next letter in the sentence. He’s quite the planner!

When we first started dating we knew someone who got engaged and I remember casually telling him what I would want when I get engaged. First, I wanted to be surprised. Second, I wanted everyone else to be surprised. I knew a girl whose fiance told everyone the day he was going to do it, so everyone she called already knew. That’s not for me.  Third, I wanted a good story to tell.  Finally, I wanted to have my nails done so it would look pretty when I showed people.  He definitely succeeded on all counts and I know I’m the luckiest girl in the world!”

Brian, you are the man. This is for you.

If you’re new here, don’t miss the other stories of thoughtful men in this series. And if you have any stories that you think might work for this series, if you know a dad, husband, uncle, or friend who gave a great gift, I’d love to hear the story. Send me a quick email.

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Enjoy the weekend. It’s so nice here I’m tempted to spring my daughter from school for the afternoon and go picnic. And speaking of picnics, I have a few great recipes to share next week. Plus so much more, so very much more. Maybe even a free printable or two. So stop by and we’ll get busy in the kitchen. See you then!

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