A star is born!

Today, on our dad's birthday, my sister Loie told me that she had had an epiphany of sorts about our dad and the rest of us in the family. She wrote that it came while she was reading about how Merlin discovered at the age of 12 that his real father was Ambrosius and, with his wizard's sight, he knew that Ambrosius would become a king. And, she went on to write, "Wow, if you could pick a father, well, in your dreams only would you ever think it would be Ambrosius." That's what led to her little epiphany that our dad was the big star in our family, not really leaving any room for the rest of us to take on a starring role. It wasn't as though he planned it that way. It's just the way it was. He had a larger-than-life persona, a charisma, that just made him that way. While our mother was quite modest and took a back seat to him most of the time, she also kept him in check, pulling gently on the reins and cleaning up after the lot of us in the wake of our individual attempts to forge our own way in the world.

I can't think of Peck without Roena, named after Ivanhoe's love Rowena, the prettiest and smartest girl in the county who, despite her own ambitions and ability to shine in her own right, chose and married our dad. It strikes me that for all of Daddy's star qualities and stage presence, he might have fallen flat without Momma to back him up. This reminds me of the famous quote about Ginger Rogers, attributed to some guy named Bob Thaves who quipped (regarding Fred Astaire),  "Sure he was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards...and in high heels." Yep, Peck got star billing, but he would have been the first to admit that he needed a partner like Roena to keep dancing. And when Roena didn't need him to take care of her any longer, when she didn't want to dance anymore, he walked off the stage.

One thing my father did that is so rare today is this: He was his own man. He didn't dance to anyone else's music except my mother's. Happy birthday, Daddy. Thank you for being the star in our family. You taught me every lesson worth learning.