My Dad’s Missing Slipper

After my father passed, my wife said that she could hear me talking to my dad in my sleep, both as an adult and as a child. I didn’t remember talking to my dad. Apparently I would talk about my dog when I was growing up, and I would carry on a conversation with him for a long time, as if he was standing right next to me. She said I also mentioned a teacher, Mrs. Whooton, my fifth grade teacher. In time the dreams with my dad stopped, because my wife says she no longer hears me talk to my father anymore.

My sister had asked me if I wanted any of his stuff. I already received a lot from him growing up and before his passing, so I could not really think of anything. But I remembered a pair of very nice slippers my wife and I had bought him for Christmas, shortly before he passed away.

It doesn’t matter who my father was. It matters who I remember he was ~ Anne Sexton

When I received the slippers they looked brand new and smelled like they new had never been taken out of the box. I told my wife I was going to wear them when it got cold outside. So, I put them in my closet, until I would need to pull them back out.

When the time came I took the slippers out and I remembered my father. It was nice to have something of my dad I can wear around the house. We had the same foot size and when I was younger at times I would wear his shoes to play football. He would get mad at me when I brought them back muddy.

A couple days went by, when one night I got up to let the dog out. She was doing her small barking routine, like she always does when she wants to go out. As I woke up I saw my father at the end of my bed looking down at me. And the smell of cigar smoke got really bad, to let me know that, yes, it was him! As I looked at him, he smiled at me and faded away. It was a good feeling to know that my father was there to check on me.

The next day my wife said she could hear me talking to my dad again in my sleep. I had apparently said, “Dad it is good to see you.” I told her about the dream of seeing him standing there during the night. For some reason I then felt cold around my legs and feet, so I remembered his slippers and went to the bedroom to get them. But one of the slippers was gone!

Don’t you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet? ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

I asked my wife if she had seen the missing slipper, but she had not. We looked all over the house and we could not find it. I  eventually went back in the bedroom again, to make sure I didn’t overlook the slipper, and when I saw the other slipper on the floor, I noticed it was the left foot. I knew then that my dad came and got the one slipper, because when I was growing up we were taught to put our right shoe on first, not the left. I smiled and simply left the left slipper on the floor, hoping my dad will eventually bring back the right slipper.