Old Spice Memories

by Czerae Franks
(Forston, GA USA)

My dad is a tough man with a heart of gold on the inside; a big teddy bear who has grown softer with age. When I was a child, he wasn’t always around to send me off to school in the morning, but his presence was always there.

My dad worked shift work at the local paper mill and would regularly be gone to work by the time I woke up, but he always told me he loved me before he left. Not by sneaking into my room and whispering it in my ear; no, my dad was more creative than that.

I first met Elfy when I was about four or five years old. Elfy was my dad’s creation. He was an elf that visited our house that left notes for me on the bathroom mirror or window in the steam. He was a very busy elf because not only did he visit my house, but he worked for Santa in the North Pole as well. However, no matter what time of year it was or how busy he was at the North Pole, each morning when my dad was away at work when I entered the bathroom, there on the mirror or the window would be his footprints. There was always a message with the footprints that varied from “have a good day” to “I saw you sleeping this morning” but the message always meant the same, “I love you and am thinking of you.”

Elfy has never been far away, even well into my adulthood. On the day of my wedding, after my dad walked me down the aisle, he handed me a note. His eyes filled with tears as he watched me unfold the heart shaped note. It read, “I will miss you. Love, Elfy”. The footprints on the note were the same that were on the mirror and those footprints will remain on my heart for the rest of my days. Whenever I smell Old Spice, the aftershave scent that always lingered in the bathroom on those early mornings, I am flooded with memories of my dad, my special elf, and just how much my dad loves me.