I'm very sorry for your loss. I'm grateful for the many gifts my dad gave to me. I derive comfort in knowing that he had me to share his favorite films, music and memories with. It's hard to imagine how dreary life would have been without each other, but now I'm starting to realize just how dreary now that he's gone. Once a person has had a total mind connection with another human being, after they're gone, you feel disconnected and disoriented. My father and I could read each other's thoughts and practically had our own language using idioms and lines from movies, which only we understood.

Cases like mine are rare, because my father was a single parent and I was an only child, and we lived in the same house for 55 years. I have lost other relatives I lived with, including my grandmother, my great uncle and my great aunt. I loved them dearly, but I didn't share as many interests and conversations with them as I did with my father. My dad was the person I relied on most for my daily happiness and emotional support. His presence helped me endure and recover from all the other grief and frustration in my life. Now there is no one who truly understands how I feel, except the other people in this thread, which is a comfort to me and for which I am truly grateful.