This Take picks up from the other myTake I wrote, the one thanking the women in my life. A Thank You to the women in my life Since I think it's due to also share my special thank yous to the most important men in my life, I wish to dedicate this little piece just to that.
- My father
It's difficult, very difficult to think about good reasons to thank you, given the very distant relationship we have had, and how we basically ignored each other for years, but in the recent times I've found many things to appreciate about you.
Many of them are practical skills, like your acumen and your talent in building up a business from scratch, and keeping it all afloat while being concerned about your employee's welfare, especially in a trying time like the one we are currently living.
I've been seeing a side of you I have never seen, and it makes me genuinely respect you.
And the way you have been treating me in the recent times, introducing me as your equal to workers and associates alike, that your choice for succession fell on me, and that you ask for my opinion regarding important decisions, make me dare to think you do consider me a worthy son?
Well, I do wish to thank you for all this.
- My stepfather
What to say?
You've been with me and my mother more than you probably should have, but for me honestly it would never be enough.
You loved her sincerely even when she really tested your patience and acceptance to the breaking point, and you loved me as if I was really your son. Even if you had a strong enmity with my father, you didn't take it out on me in any way. To you it didn't matter that I was your rival/enemy' son, but that I was the son the woman you loved.
My mother too was really happy with you, and I think that letting you go is probably one of her biggest regrets. You showed what a real relationship with someone her age and who really understood her was, and I think that's one of the things that changed her life for the better.
And even now that you have made yourself a new family, your family, you have left the door open for me and this is something I'll appreciate eternally.
For that, thank you.
- My father-in-law
We have developed a sincere bond and friendship. You are a bit of a shy man - and I can undestand that, givent the energic wive and daughter you have!
But under that shy exterior you are a really passionate and loving man, and the jokes you tell me are so good that I keep them to make associate and friends laugh.
''A man who's in love with the right woman is complete, a man who's in love with the wrong woman, is finished''
and
''What's the difference between Heaven and Hell? In Heaven...
the French are the cooks
the Germans are the engineers
the British are the police
the Swiss are the managers
the Italians are the lovers
In Hell...
the British are the cooks
the French are the managers
the Italians are the engineers
the Germans are the police
the Swiss are the lovers''
I always crack up at the last one because me being French-Italian and you being Swiss-Austrian, this joke hits us both! But there's not only that, there's also that deep friendship and sense of complicity that only men can have and that I experienced very little.
For your friendship and all the laughs, thank you.
There are also many other men, with whom I have established close and meaningful personalized relationships,that I'd like to mention, but this would get too long so I'll just make sure they'll know how grateful I am to them.
Thank you for reading!
A hug from me,
Jean
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