The Best Kind of Father's Day Present

Autumn Marie (Haeberle) Mulverhill

Last night, Sheryl and I said our family prayers preparatory to reading scriptures and some other reading. Before I could get to the word Amen, there was a good, sharp knock at the front door. I thought of picking up the walking stick that I made a couple of years ago as I walked through the house. Sheryl had left the front porch light on earlier and I had dutifully turned it off before going to bed. Now, in the little bit of light from the street, I could see a small, female form with long hair through the beveled glass in the door.





Agressively, I flipped the porch light back on and cautiously opened the door, peaking around it to see who might be with the disarmingly feminine form visible through the glass. She smirked at me, watching closely for my reaction. That reaction was as natural as anything I've evcr done, because it was one of genuine "shock and awe" (to use a presidential expression.)





My little girl had come all the way up from Winnetka, CA several days early, just to surprise me for Father's day. I couldn't stop telling her, during our prolonged hug, how happy I was to see her. Little Aubs had come to see me, and life, which had seemed pretty rotten earlier in the day, was suddenly full of bright promise and joy and hope.