I miss my father
My dad passed away in 2009. He lived a long time (92 years) and had a very good life overall.
This morning, I was updating a credit card online and something my dad said came back to me. He said "It makes no horse sense to be carrying a high balance", some words to that effect. He was right. He could be a bit gruff at times but he had a heart of solid gold.
I wish I had gotten to know him better. There were so many things we didn't talk about. He was in WW2, and like most veterans of that war, he did not want to talk about it. I just wish he could have talked to me more about it. He might have cried, but damn it, I loved my dad and would not have cared one iota if he had cried about it. Of course, any human being with a heart who witnessed such death and suffering would cry.
He was a lawyer. Yes, I know lawyer-client stuff is all confidential, and I would never ask him for any confidential information. It would have been nice if he could have told me some interesting NON-confidential stuff.
Anyway, I miss him. Do you miss your father too, at times ? If your father was absent or not a good father, you have my sincerest sympathies, truly. 
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I wish I had gotten to know him better after I grew up. He was a troubled man but he did the best he was capable of, all things considered.
Love you, Dad. 
In fact, I dreamed about him last night. I dream about him often.
He died in 1996 at age 74. He was also a WW2 veteran. I got to go to one of his last army reunions in 1995. I'm glad I got to see him with his buddies. He was a different person with them.
He was hard-working and quiet and extremely generous. And a great cook! 
He died in '87 at 66. Never could get him to talk about the war. I know he helped liberate the camps, must have been awful. I really miss him all these years later
so sorry for the loss of your beloved dad. I lost my dad unexpectedly in late 1997, almost 18 years ago. I still miss him so much, and I always will. The thing I regret most is that he didn't get to know my daughters as one was just a baby when he passed and the other came along years later. He had such a great personality, fun-loving, laid-back, but at the same time energetic and decisive too. Everyone liked him -- whenever I met people who knew him from work or elsewhere (if he wasn't around) they would say "oh, ----- is your dad? Everyone likes your dad so much." One time I asked him who he admired and he said, "Will Rogers", the guy who said he never met a man he didn't like. My dad was like him in that way, always looking for and trying to bring out the best in people.
He died in 2003 at the age of 86. He suffered a great deal in dying; his lung cancer having spread throughout his body. I think abut him every single day. He was the co-pilot of the "Mary Ruth", the WWII B-17 bomber and crew flying out of England that was covered in a series of newspaper articles by John Steinbeck who was then a war correspondent. My dad liked to talk about having conversations with both John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway, who he met in Biarritz France and got drunk with. My dad's plane was eventually shot down over Germany. He was shot by the Germans and then sent to a German military hospital where he made friends with a giant Russian POW named Ivan who took utmost care of him (my dad's hips and legs were badly injured and he couldn't walk). My dad was then sent to Stalag Luft III as a POW, the camp of the Great Escape. He was a recipient of the Air Medal, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and several other medals. He was a career Air Force Officer and flew in the Berlin airlift. My dad was from Arkansas but truly made himself into a sophisticated man of the world. He was as far away from an authoritarian martinet as you could get and was unbelievably kind and understanding with everyone. Despite being from the South, he didn't have a single racist bone in his body and he treated the black soldiers who served under him with utmost respect. When he was stationed in Georgia during the 60s, he practically raised a little black boy in our home who was poor, had no father, and had a very troubled home life. I just wish I could have told him I loved him far more often. He's the one on the end, on the right.
I went to law school, but alas, I don't have the lawyer in me. I think you're right about missing your parents. Absolutely no one will ever love you and care for you as completely as your own parents. I miss my mother too, but that's for another day.
Mine, not so much. 
Mine bailed when I was 3, circa 1944.
Fell in love with another woman while in the army in Honolulu.
Never saw him again.
It was one of those war time things.
Have no memories of him.
Didn't leave much for my momma and me
Just this old guitar
And an empty bottle of booze..."
Well, at least he didn't name me "Sue" 
