I’ve lost two fantastic fathers, my dad and my husband. But they’re both with me today

September 6, 2026 — 5:00am

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My friend warned me that Father’s Day would be difficult for the children and me. My father died two years ago, and my husband just this year.

I wanted to tell her that my father and my husband have never felt far away.

When I am in the gym on the rowing machine, its rhythmical movement transports me back to the tinny rowed by my father, my siblings and me on board. My father was always happy to be out on the water on a sparkling day. He would glance behind to chart his course to the beach. I would dangle my hand over the side of the boat into deeply green waters that reflected the surrounding bushland as I swayed backwards and forwards with the pull of the oars.

I eat an oyster at a market and am immediately lost in reverie, back on those rocks covered in oysters, close to where we would swim. My father........

© The Sydney Morning Herald