Michele's Fairy-Tale Challenge - DYHTIMS edition

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful English woman, living in the United States with her five year old daughter, who kicked her drug abusing husband out of their house, pulled up her boots, and set out to make a life for herself and her daughter. She was very sad and felt very alone.

One day, while working as head nurse in a small, community-based hospital, the English woman met a very nice man who was also recently separated from his family. This man had a heart of gold and treated the woman like a queen, and, less than a year later, they were married.

The newly married couple was very happy, although many people warned the kindly man about the willful and headstrong nature of his new step-daughter. She was very attached to her father (who had not had any contact with her in months) and resented the idea that someone else was coming into her life where her father belonged. She had a terrible temper and frequently acted out, and even her own beloved grandmother warned this man about dealing with his new step-daughter. The man listened quietly and thoughtfully to each of these well meaning people, then continued to be the best man that he could, supporting his wife and her daughter in every way possible. Sadly, his own son was prevented from seeing him, for the most part, because his ex-wife did not follow the court orders for visitations. Meanwhile, the little girl cried herself to sleep each night wondering where her daddy was and why he didn't come to see her. Certainly the irony of this man longing for contact with his own son while living with a little girl whose father couldn't be bothered to visit her must have struck him strongly.

Several years passed. Every year at Valentine's Day, the man would order two flower arrangements - one for his lovely wife and one for the little girl. Contact with his son was very limited and always strained, which saddened this kind, gentle man terribly, but he poured his heart and his soul into his wife and her daughter, and made sure that they had the best life he could provide for them. Although she still missed her father terribly, the little girl began to realize that he was never coming back and that this man who was living in her house was a good man who would take care of her and love her, if only she would open her heart and let him in. It wasn't something that happened overnight, but it did happen and, one random day while they were driving home from the store, she called him "Daddy" for the first time, and the man found a daughter while the girl found a father.

My step-father was the one that got up in the middle of the night when I was sick and cried out for my Daddy. My step-father was the one that has never missed a single public performance I've been in. (Never. Not one.) My step-father was the man that I took to "Date with Dad" night in high school. My step-father was the one that snapped 500 pictures at my high school graduation. He was the one that walked me down the aisle at my wedding once he'd kissed my cheek and pulled down my veil. When I was sick as a dog in my freshman year of college, this man drove to the hospital at 3:30am to pick up the drugs that I needed and then drove two hours to my school to bring them to me, take me to the hospital, and get groceries for me before driving home and going to work in the afternoon. This man is one of the primary reasons that I have such a tough time finding "the man of my dreams" because he brought me up to expect that some man would be very lucky to have me, and that's how he felt, too.

My daddy went in for an angiogram today and they found that he has 90% blockage in his beautiful, wonderful heart, and my aunt tells me that he's going to have to have open heart bypass surgery very quickly. This man is such a blessing to everyone that knows him and even some that never actually meet him, through his work as a hospital pharmacist. He has never met someone that he didn't help in some way and he's never going to be a rich man because he gives away money as though he were Bill Gates. He and my mom have gone through their ups and downs, as any couple married for over 25 years will, but they're still together and love each other very much.

At the risk of sounding very immature and very selfish, I still need my daddy and I can't imagine my life without him in it. Please, if you believe in any deity or higher power or whatever, please pray for my daddy. I know where he will go when his work here on Earth is done, but I'm just not ready for that and neither is he. Please don't take him from me, God. Please let all of us live happily ever after.