I know I said I wouldn’t be writing a post till I’m back from the US, but something has just happened that I want to write about.
The good news is it has nothing to do with Queen, Birkenstocks, Nottingham Forest or planning so that has increased the odds of this post being less tragic by about 99.87%.
Anyway, blame it on jet lag or just the fact I’m in Portland, but I was a bit bored so decided to check my Linkedin account.
Because I’m a curious [read: nosy] person, I looked at who had been looking at me and suddenly time stood still. This is why …
You might not be able to see it, but it’s the person on the far left of the page.
The reason that person made my life momentarily pause is because my Dad’s name was Roger Campbell … the same as the project management consultant who visited my page, even though I don’t know him and he obviously doesn’t know me.
It was so strange to see his name pop up into my life like that.
Of course I think about him all the time and my Mum sometimes calls me Roger instead of Robert … but to have his name inject into my everyday life was different.
It wasn’t something associated with the past, it was in my present.
In some ways, that’s exactly what I’ve wished would happen for the past 15 years.
Where he is just ‘there’ … part of my life, asking me questions, making me laugh, making me think, asking me to explain just what I actually do.
But it wasn’t my Dad … it was someone who just shared his name, but to be honest, it doesn’t matter, it was warm and comforting and a reminder that he is as much of my life today as he always was.
I miss him.
I miss him so much.
I wish he was here to be part of my life.
To be part of Mum’s life.
To meet Jill, Rosie – the cat – and his soon-to-be-born grandson.
But he’s not, well, not in the way I wish he was … but given I wrote about him on Monday and it would be his 76th birthday on September 17th, I feel he’s letting me know that as much as I think of him, he is thinking of me and that makes me happy.
Well, happy and sad … but definitely in a place of peace.
So Roger Campbell, project management consultant … thank you for visiting my linkedin page, you made me happier than you could ever imagine.