Princess Alex: A Daddy's Love Story

By Joe Sestak

This is a father's tribute to a remarkable daughter who stood up against all odds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669873334

Joe Sestak

N/A

Book preview

Chapter 1

HEAVEN

Bosox was bouncing with excitement as I bent down to give her a cookie. My doggie was my best friend and I could not love anyone more. I was gently rubbing her Cockapoo fur as she licked my cheek to thank me for the cookie, when I heard a gentle voice call my name, Alex!

The goddess of the sky was waving to me and I immediately flew over to where she was sitting. I loved Athena. She ruled our heavens with kindness and caring. We don’t have mothers in our Queendom but if I were ever to have a mother, I would want her to be like Athena.

Good morning, Princess Alex, she said. Let’s hold hands and go on a walk together. I smiled and reached up to take hold of one of her fingers because my little girl hands were much smaller than hers.

As we walked among the clouds the goddess said, Alex, I want to ask if you would do something for me. Yes, Queen Athena, I replied, happy that Athena would ask me to help her. I’ll gladly do whatever you need in our beautiful heavens.

Alex, it’s not here that I would like you to do something. I want to ask if you would take a journey to a far-off planet, one where small girls and boys live with their mothers and fathers.

But Athena why are you sending me away?

I am not really sending you away, sweet Alex; I am asking if you would be the daughter of a mother and father for a few years.

Of course, Athena, but why are you asking me to be someone’s daughter? I wouldn’t know how.

One of my purposes, gentle Alex, is that I want this distant world to know what goodness really is. You’ll see what I mean my little one, as you grow up living with your new parents. There is another reason but we can talk about that later.

She squeezed my hand with both of hers, bent down and as she kissed my cheek she asked if I would like to take Bosox with me. I nodded, Yes, and the next thing I knew … I was being held in the arms of a man in a faraway land!

Chapter 2

MY NEW FAMILY

The smiling man was rocking me back and forth as he hummed a pleasant tune. I felt as though I had shrunk to the size of a tiny baby girl in his arms – and I had!

I enjoyed the man’s soft humming. It felt as though I were in a happy dream as he swayed me from left to right, and right to left. He kept smiling at me, repeating the tune again and again, hey-ahey-hey, ahey-hey … hey-ahey-ahey, ahey-hey, ahey-hey … And just as the man’s gentle song was putting me to sleep as I snuggled in his rocking arms, I heard a soft voice which sounded like goddess Athena’s say, Why don’t you sit down, Joe, and I’ll hold Alex so you can rest?

I somehow sensed that the man didn’t really want to put me down nor that he needed to rest. But he immediately carried me over to a beautiful woman and as he laid me tenderly in her arms said, Our new love, Susan. And then I knew true happiness when a woman as gentle as any angel I played with in the heavens kissed me as she lovingly said, Our beautiful daughter, Alex.

I really had become a daughter! And this was my mother – so breathtaking and kind. And her next words were to begin my love story on this planet, Your Daddy and I are so happy to have you born into our lives, Alex, and we’ll be taking you home with us.

I tried to say how wonderful that made me feel but found I could only gurgle with joy.

Chapter 3

GOING HOME

As my Daddy was carrying me into our home, I heard a dog barking that sounded just like Bosox! I saw her run over and jump up on Daddy, trying to lick me as he held me in his arms. Bosox was here in our new world just as Athena had promised. We were together again for our new adventure.

And what an adventure it was! Waking up Mommy in the middle of the night for milk; then being handed to Daddy to put me back to sleep as he rocked and hummed me his tune. During the day we explored the new planet which Queen Athena had sent Bosox and me to, where everything was so very different from living in heaven.

But Mommy and Daddy made it easy to adjust. If I wanted to wipe my nose (we don’t have runny noses in heaven) I could just do it on Daddy’s jeans as he said, That’s what Daddies are for. And when he came home from his job, I would run to open the door, jumping and shouting, Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home! We would then hold each other’s hands as we twirled in a circle hopping up and down to our favorite song, With or Without You (it was only later that I would come to realize the true meaning of these words for my new family). But back then, Daddy and I would dance and bounce to the music until we were so worn out that we’d collapse together … and Mommy would call out, Come to dinner you two!

Daddy was like a big brother, guarding me against jumping sprickets that would suddenly hop across the carpet in front of me. He’d chase these jumpy creatures and if he couldn’t catch them, they’d quickly hop right back to where they’d come from. Then at night he’d always be the last to tuck me into bed as we looked at each other and would both say, See you in the morning, and Daddy would add, I love you to the Moon and back, Alex.

Mommy and I learned to draw together, leaning over paper with our crayons at my small artist’s table. Every day we’d play games that she had known as a young girl or ones I made up. We would even change the rules of the games if we felt it would be more fun! After dinner we would catch fireflies in our neighborhood with my very own firefly net catcher. I caught so many that the homemade box I put them in seemed to light up the path as we walked back home slowly, not wanting to go inside yet. And just before we did go into our house, I would open the small door of my firefly box and my new friends would fly back to their own home for nighttime.

Holding onto one finger of Mommy and one of Daddy, we would say goodnight to the beautiful moon, and I would quietly send a thank you kiss to Athena for sending me to this wonderous planet and my happy home and parents.

Chapter 4

EXPLORING

Bosox and I began to explore this new world further and further away. I could also see more of the planet as Daddy carried me high up on his shoulders when we walked. And then Bosox and I began to ride to distant places in what Mommy called a car. We just got in, turned a key and off we went. I had my own special seat in the back that Daddy said was my throne. As we were driving along with Bosox beside me one time, I looked out the window and found myself saying, Isn’t it a beautiful day!? Looking at the world is just amazing! as my parents smiled. Years later when I opened Daddy’s wallet for some money, I smiled myself as I saw he’d written down what I had said that day when I was so very young.

And it was amazing! Daddy and I would go exploring everywhere. We’d chase rabbits and walk along streams, crouching down to look at fish and catch turtles, and get dirty in the mud and water – we were baaaaddd! I picked up cicadas as Daddy told me about these strange bugs. They live underground, he said, except when they come out once every 17 years and sing, hummmmm, so loudly that it would wake me up if the windows were open. And at night we would often sleep inside my small pink Cinderella tent in front of the fireplace, with Daddy’s legs sticking outside the tent door.

Whether at home, outside in nature or inside artistic studios, Mommy and I had fun together doing all types of new art, from beads to sketches. It was with her that I began my love affair with creativity that continued throughout my life. She also introduced me to ballet which I really liked since we danced in heaven all the time. I enjoyed playing soccer and found kicking the ball was fun for me. However, the rules meant that most of the time I was just running back and forth, back and forth, without the ball. As Coach Bill and I became good friends we changed the rules for me so I could kick my own ball up and down as the others played.

Since Mommy and Daddy both worked, I had a nanny who came and took care of me during the day. I loved Gage because she was so exciting! And it was also because I liked playing with big girls – young women who were older than me.

Gage was easy to talk with about anything and she also helped me to become creative in arts and crafts. We made flower head-wreaths, crayoned, painted and drew so, so many things, including on one large poster paper that I titled Alex’s Room. It was a drawing of a castle with me as a princess in its upper window. Today, it still hangs on my bedroom door … which Daddy pauses to look at before entering my room just before he steps inside to glance around … and smile with memories.

Sometimes I had to assure Gage my ideas were alright to do. One day I said to her, Let’s build a fort, to which she quickly agreed. But when I began getting wood, nails and hammers from the garage, she hesitated and said, Your parents wouldn’t want us to do all this, Alex. But I told her, Oh, don’t worry, my parents will be alright with it, and of course they were.

I also began to meet the other children who lived nearby. We once took them all to the park for my birthday, playing games and eating birthday cake together. When they had to go home, I stayed sitting on the park bench looking at the trees and the different birds and bright flowers that we didn’t have in heaven. I was so happy as I held my Mommy’s hand, with Daddy smiling at the two of us sitting there. When I got older, I wrote a poem about that beautiful day that had meant so much to me: Life blows from the trees flowers, birds and animals Life is all around. The words were on a drawing of nature I made, and it hangs in Daddy’s study today.

I especially loved our Bradford Pear trees that were everywhere in our neighborhood. Each spring they blossomed with beautiful white flowers. And in autumn their leaves turned bright red. When the leaves fell on our lawn, I would help Daddy rake them into a humongous pile using the small rake Mommy had gotten for me. We would then run and jump into the huge mountain of leaves, again and again. And then we’d just lay on them as if they were a bed, looking up at the sky where I knew Athena was smiling as she looked down upon me. I told Mommy that when I got married, it would be under the white blossoms of the Bradford Pears during my favorite season of springtime.

But I also liked wintertime when we got so much snow. Daddy would take me sledding on the large hill at the nearby Theological Seminary. I loved it as down we would go over and over. We went sledding together many times throughout the years and would sometimes ask the kids in our cul-de-sac to go with us, piling all our sleds and ourselves into Daddy’s car. The sad part was, as I got older it began to snow less because our weather slowly became warmer.

Chapter 5

WAR

I remember one evening when I was very young that Daddy had not come home to play or put me to bed, and Mommy had seemed worried as she kissed me good night. I woke up later and heard Daddy talking with Mommy about a plane that had flown into the building where he worked. He said that he had just walked out of it before the crash, but had gone back to help because people had been hurt.

Sometime later Daddy sat holding me on his lap, speaking to me about what had happened the night he had not come home until very late. He said some bad men had come from a distant land and had hurt people by crashing airplanes into buildings in the country where we live. Our nation had now decided to go to war he continued softly, and strike them back in their country. He had to go to that land where they were because of his job in the military. But he said he would be inside the country just for a short while and should not be gone very long.

A memory came back to me from heaven where I had once heard some angels whispering about a god of war, a warrior they called Ares who had been banished from the Queendom. Because his wars brought fear and terror and violence, Queen Athena kept him alone on a planet named Mars.

My father flew away to that far away land and I thought of him all the time. But as he promised, he was not gone for too long; but still, it was long enough. And when Daddy walked in and picked me up, I hugged him tightly.

But he let Mommy and me know that he would have to go back, this time with ships to continue the war. He said he would be away for almost a year, getting the ships ready to sail to the other side of the planet and fight there for a long time.

I was sad when my father left home again, this time to prepare his ships for war. I knew now what sadness was like when I did not have Daddy to play with or to tuck me in at night. Then one day Mommy put me on my throne, and we drove our car a long distance to see Daddy one more time before he sailed away.

That night I could not fall asleep as I lay in the house Daddy had gotten us to stay in by the sea. I knew Daddy could not either since the light was on in the living room. When I got out of bed and went to see him, he picked me up and put me on his lap. As I snuggled, I asked him about war.

When he told me it was hard to explain, I asked if it was on TV like Clifford the Big Red Dog. He smiled and said there were war movies, and we could watch one for just a while since he wanted me to get my sleep.

As I sat watching the movie with Daddy, he kept his arms tightly around me. When he turned it off, he quietly asked if I was okay. I nodded my head, but when he started to carry me back to bed, I said I wanted to sleep in his lap. I had not told Daddy I was worried, but I think he knew since he stroked my hair softly and began to hum our tune that always made everything seem alright, hey-ahey-hey, ahey-hey …. Soon, I was asleep.

Whenever I cried as a baby, Mom would hand me over to Daddy to hum our tune as he rocked me in his arms. And I always became quiet as I listened to it, and then feeling safe, I’d find myself fast asleep. This time as I lay there in Daddy’s arms falling asleep, I realized why Queen Athena had banished Ares to a distant part of the heavens. War was not good for many reasons, including it was taking my Daddy away.

Chapter 6

WITHOUT YOU

The next morning, Mommy and I went with Daddy to watch him sail away. He carried me onto his biggest ship, the one where he would be. Putting me down, he took my hand as we walked onto the roof of the ship. It was several times larger than the soccer field that I played on with Coach Bill. Made of metal, it covered the rest of the ship underneath it.

Holding Daddy’s hand, I ran up and down on it just like on the soccer field. Then he explained that after I left the ship and he waved goodbye to me, it would sail out to sea where airplanes would land on the roof and a large elevator would take them inside.

Daddy put me in the big chair that belonged to the man who would be in charge of handling all those planes safely as they moved back and forth on the roof. He took a picture of me sitting in the chair, with the word Handler sewn onto the top of it above my small head. He kept that picture on his desk, and would chuckle whenever someone asked him about it, saying, It reminds me that Alex always handles me.

Daddy was gone across the sea a very long time. In the meantime, Mommy and I played with Bosox, read books together, did lots of games and art, and went for walks in the nearby woods along its beautiful streams. She had become the gentle, lovely Queen of my life on this new planet, encouraging me to experience as much as I could about everything. She even took me along when she visited with the other families that had someone who had sailed away to war with Daddy. She planned picnics for the families where we would all play games together, which everyone loved. And then one day I learned about the deepest sadness of all, when someone who had gone to war with Daddy was lost, forever, to those who loved him at home.

I never knew there could be such sorrow as Mommy took me with her when she visited the woman who had lost … and would never see … him, again. Tears ran down my cheek as many people came together and so many kind words were said about the man who had left behind so many who loved him, just like we did Daddy.

I was quiet as Mommy and I drove home. She must have known how I felt since she gave me an extra tight hug that night after she carried me to bed. Daddy will be alright, Alex, she said softly, and when I nodded, she then spoke my favorite words, I love you, Alex … to Gormiyama and beyond.

When Mommy went to her bedroom, I stayed awake so I could talk with my dear friend, Bunny, a young stuffed rabbit with long ears that Mommy had given me. She was colored pink, one of my two favorite colors. When I got into bed, I always covered her with Blankie, which Mommy had knitted to keep me warm as a new baby. Each night, as Bosox went to sleep on a pillow beside my head, I would hug Bunny, along with Blankie, as she and I talked about the day and what I loved about it or, like today, what was worrying me.

That night I told Bunny that I did not understand where the man had gone when he was lost in the war. Why did it have to happen and make his loved ones so sad?

As I looked at Bunny, she seemed different, as though her eyes were alive. I then heard Athena’s voice gently speaking as if Bunny were saying it, Alex, this is a part of life I wanted you to experience when I asked you to live with your parents on earth. You need to learn all about life, including when love, happiness or dreams are replaced by sorrow. You will feel this sadness yourself – as will your parents – while you remain with them.

What matters most in people’s lives are goodness and love, Alex. Someday you’ll understand why I have asked you to learn all about this while on earth. Goodnight now, my sweet one. As my eyes drooped closed, listening to Bosox’s quiet breathing next to me, I thought I now realized what Athena wanted me to learn in my new life, although I had no idea why.

Chapter 7

COMING HOME

After a very long time, Daddy came home to us from the war. I had missed him so much even though he wrote letters that Mommy read to me, and mailed cassette tapes so I could watch him on television reading me books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But I most loved it when Daddy read me Winnie the Pooh. I played the tape over and over again. I would then run up to the television and kiss Daddy through the TV screen, and talk all day with Mommy about Tiger, who was my favorite in Winnie the Pooh’s animal kingdom.

I always knew what Daddy was doing because he also mailed me lots of pictures of him and Herman from Mount Vernon together. Hermon was a small toy duck Daddy took with him wherever he went. He would snap pictures of the two of them as they both flew off the ship in an airplane; hung from a rope beneath a helicopter as it glided over the sea; visited other ships; or worked and ate meals with his sailors. When he met with admirals and presidents from other countries that were in the war with American, they kindly posed for a picture with Daddy and Herman, for me.

Mommy explained that the large ship