My Husband Said Senior Night Was “For Real Dads” So My 79-Year-Old Father Walked My Daughter Out on His Cane

He built her a hitting net out of old fence posts and cargo netting behind the shed.

He sat through every match. He kept stats on a clipboard nobody asked him to keep.

He knows her kill percentage better than her coach does.

And he’d never once called himself her dad.

That last part, I took for respect. I thought he was being careful with her. Giving her room.

I didn’t understand, until that Thursday, that a man can be careful for so long it turns into fear.

After supper