This year is my first Father’s Day as a dad. My son will be just seven months old, too young to know why there’s a card on my bedside table or why my partner insists I don’t change nappies for a day. And yet, while I step into this new role, I’m also carrying the absence of my own dad.

Beyond everything I miss about him, what hurts most is that he never got to meet his grandson. I would give just about anything to see his enormous, room-filling smile while he plays with my little boy.

Father’s Day is meant to be a celebration, but for many, it’s complicated. Grief doesn’t pause for joy, and joy doesn’t erase grief; they coexist. I spoke to a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Dr Catherine Houlihan, who said, “Grief doesn’t follow a predictable pattern of emotions; instead feelings come and go in different ways as a person processes their loss.”

My first Father’s Day marks an important milestone, and while I know that grief doesn’t follow a “predictable pattern”, I........

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