MY FATHER'S TOOLS
My Dad passed away in March of 2021. I can't believe that next March will be five years. It seems like it wasn't that long ago, like the wound is still fresh, but it also feels like forever since I've seen him. I have an idea for a song. It came from work my siblings and I began only a few weeks ago - clearing out my Dad's workshop. My Dad was a finishing carpenter and spent the last chunk of his career building furniture and turning wood on a lathe in his cherished workshop. My Dad's workshop had not been touched since his death. It looked exactly the same as the day he left it. There were hand tools with little wood shavings caught in them, still on the workbench and placed by his hands. It was a bit of an unintentional shrine, the same way parents sometimes leave their kid's bedrooms exactly the same after they leave for college. Maybe we didn't touch anything because it helped us feel like Dad was closer in some way. The top of an unfinished side table...
