Many Pride celebrations I would get frustrated with trying to organize friends, wrangling them like a sack of wet cats. But there was one person I didn’t have to call or text or pre-plan where to meet: my Da.

In fact whenever Church Street closed for whatever reason, I would always come across Da in the crowd. Halloween, Pride, Fetish Fair: when he would emerge through the crowd our greeting was as if we had not seen each other in years. We would make all around know we were gay father and gay son, meeting as accepted equals.

This year it was hard to look into the crowd, knowing he wouldn’t emerge. I miss him every day, but today was a bit rough.

The lesson you should take away from this? Take a moment and love the fuck out of whatever you love. Seriously, life is pretty tenuous and should not be taken for granted.