My dad is an outdoorsman, expert pie baker, mentor, faithful husband, and amazing dad.
His name is Jay MacArthur. He is the kind of dad who truly cares for his two daughters. In fact, he is the best father I know (although my father-in-law is up there too).
My dad spent his early years on the North Shore living in a house that my grandpa built with his own hands on Mount Seymour Parkway. Later, he moved to Richmond and after that he attended UBC, graduating in electrical engineering.
My dad and my fantastic mom, Lucy, moved to North Vancouver to raise their family a couple of years before I was born.
These days, my dad works during the day and is an adventurer at night. Every chance he gets after work he goes hiking, skiing, mountain climbing, windsurfing, or sailing.
He is an active member of the Alpine Club of Canada, and if he could he would spend every day teaching people how to enjoy the outdoors safely.
My poor dad was blessed with two lovely daughters, neither of whom share his passion for outdoor adventure.
However, our childhood is filled with memories of time spent with our dad outside. I went skiing for the first time when I was two years old. I still remember my first red skis, which clipped on over my running shoes.
I also learned how to scramble rocks at Lighthouse Park. One could hardly call it climbing, although I did get to wear a harness and a helmet. We often went bike riding around Stanley Park or swimming at New Brighton Pool. I remember sitting on the beach watching my dad windsurf with his hot pink helmet and being pretty impressed with him. I thought he was so cool.
Every summer, my dad took me and my sister camping to remote B.C. locations. We would drive up logging roads, and we would swim in lakes and eat wild blueberries. To me it was normal to have a dad who went to all of your piano recitals, plays, and basketball games (even if you never scored a basket).
He went not because he had to, but because he wanted to. It wasn’t until I was older that I began to notice that not all dads actually wanted to spend such intentional time with their kids.
My dad has taught me so much over the years and has done so much for me and his family. He continues to amaze me every day.
My dad is a man of few words and sometimes the wrong words. However, he is a man of many thoughtful actions. The sad part of being a person of many actions and few words is that often things get left unsaid and often other people don’t know the person you really are.
So, Dad, I’m writing this to make sure that others know you for the man you are, the one that you don’t talk up.
Thank you for all the hours you have spent doing things for me over the years without much thanks or appreciation. I’ve been a bit preoccupied, but I noticed when you handmade all of the birch bark candle holders for my wedding, and I noticed when you spent two weeks painting and fixing up my first real home.
Thank you for taking care of me and Deanna, especially when mom was in the hospital when we were kids. Thank you for teaching me so much over the years. Thank you for showing me what a gem of a husband you are so that I knew husbands and dads like you existed, and so that I chose a man worthy of my love, time, and friendship. Thank you for loving and respecting mom all of these years. Thank you for showing diligence in your faith. You have shown me what life with Jesus looks like.
Thank you for believing in me and telling me I should take physics because I would be good at it. Thank you for taking me outdoors and spending so much time with me. Even if I am not as adventurous or athletic as you are, you taught me a love for the outdoors that I deeply appreciate.
Thank you for crying during every amazing sports performance on TV (even in the movie Cool Runnings) because I have started to do the same.
Thank you for choking up every time I tell you one of my teaching success stories. It means more to me than you will ever know. And thank you for making me a crier. Sometimes in class when a student does something sweet, I have to turn around and wipe a tear from my eye and it reminds me that I am your daughter.
Most of all, thank you for accepting me for who I am: someone so very different from you and yet so similar to her daddy.
Janine MacArthur is a North Shore resident who sent in this letter about her dad in response to a North Shore News tweet requesting submissions about great dads. The letter was edited to fit the layout space. It was originally published in the June 11 North Shore News special section called Father's Day.
