Father's Day: Honor Your Dad With a Special Submission

Father's Day is this Sunday, June 19 and every year we wonder how to show our love and appreciation to that special man who helped bring us into this world, raise us and become our biggest supporter and fan.

Why not honor your 'papa' with a special poem, memory, photo or story that shows how special he's in your life?

Email your submissions to Sheila.Sanchez@patch.com with a few sentences about your entry and we'll post them June 19, on Father's Day. We want everyone to participate.

To start, I'll begin by telling you a little bit about my father—James William Van Camp. If you're a daily Los Gatos Patch user, you've seen his comments here and there at the end of some stories. 

My father was born Dec. 4, 1942 to Bill and Helen Van Camp. They raised him and three daughters the best they could. My dad has always talked about having some underlying problems in childhood which he believes later manifested into alcoholism.

After a messy adolescence, quitting high school and joining the Navy, he met a young beautiful Ecuadorian girl whom he married in 1962. I'm the product of that marriage and as my dad lovingly puts it, "the best thing that ever happened" to him.

My parents were only married for about a year. Mom divorced dad leaving him to deal with his problems. After more than 10 years of "self will run riot" as he says, he sobered up in July of 1976. I was 13 years old at the time and I remember going to AA meetings with him and praying and hoping he would forever quit drinking.

With God's help, things turned around for my papa and he quit the bottle. He slowly got back on track and began dealing with the problems that we all face without alcohol—fear, separation, insecurity, anger, jealousy, which my dad says his addiction "devilishly swept under the rug for a lot of years."

After years of working on our relationship, more him reaching out to me trying to make "amends"—one of the steps of the AA recovery program—I can honestly say he's been successful. He has also taught me valuable lessons. Forgiveness and unconditional love are the most important ones.

I haven't yet fully learned these lessons. My dad, however, has mastered them. Since my marriage in 1989 and the birth of my three children, he's tried to "make amends" by visiting me regularly, writing to me often, connecting with my children who love their grandpa, calling me at least once a week, more often now that we're getting older.

In short, he's become my biggest fan, followed by my husband, mother, children and a few close friends.

My dad says he no longer feels the need to shoot himself in the foot.

"I have a new freedom and a new happiness because of the AA program and God."

When we talk he constantly reminds me to "try to seek God's will for me, and 'do right.' "

I spoke to my dad Monday about this post and It felt great to tell him how much I love him, appreciate him and admire him for the man he's become and the efforts he's made to change his life and be a great father to me—his only daughter.