Father

This is one of the ways I remember him - my father: by one of the sharks that he made, out of pieces of a cow’s horn.  

My father was very very good with his hands.  He maintained and repaired machinery in his job.  He was so good at it that he was promoted without being able to speak and write in English - a requirement for the job.  He had no formal education.  Yet he learned to do so many things by watching other people do it.  

One of his special passion was to make things with pieces of cow’s horns, a largely discarded by-product of the abattoir where he worked.  He had probably seen cow’s horns made into ornaments.  He started to polish and mount them in pairs as ornaments.  Inverted to use as vases for flowers.  Sliced lengthwise and shaped into sampans.  Inserted sails in the boats to make sailboats.  Even 3-masts, multiple-sails, ocean-going galleons. 

But my favourite are the majestic sharks.  It has a curved body with a gaping mouth.  Huge dorsal fin and a smaller secondary one. Pectoral fins. Big vertical tail.  Bulging eyes.   Some pieces, such as the big tail, have to be heated and then shaped in a certain way.  All have to be sanded, and polished into a highly reflective shine.  I have helped my father polish many pieces.  But I have never made a whole one myself.

He had made many many of these sharks.  But he had given them all away, to relatives, co-workers, friends, …  Except the one that I have. 

When he came down with cancer in 2019, I visited him in Toronto.  And gave him a bird I made from a palm leave.  The bird can balance on its beak, on almost anything, along as its wings and tail are free.  In terms of craftsmanship, it cannot compare with his work. But I made it for him, and I think he was happy with it.  By then he had only a few more days to live.  And it was the last time I saw him.  

He is the most important man in my life. 

- My tribute to all the fathers!