I coached my client to give a speech at her Mother's birthday celebration. It made me think about a piece I wrote earlier this year.
(Michael Leunig's beautiful drawing)
"I'm helping my client write a speech he will give to his father on the his 76th birthday. His father is terminally ill and after 3 years of medical intervention is at the end of his journey.
As we were whiteboarding the draft of his speech, my client made it quite apparent that his dad was a man who didn't express his love for his five children (and now adults) and was a feisty, earthy, man of few words.
My client had never before spoken in public but we
unearthed some gems when I asked him to think of incidents in his life when he felt warmth towards his father. One such time was when he and his brother were having tennis lessons every Saturday - and his father would arrive in his daggy old gardening clothes - covered in grass and leaves from mowing and gardening.
They were trying to impress the tennis girls and were mortified at the sight of their dad every Saturday - as he brought them sandwiches and a bottle of soft drink for their half time break.
If that's not love then I don't know what is.
My client's speech was a winner, with laughing and crying - it's all the same thing!
And if your parent is not a demonstrative person, then I guess it's not that they don't love you."
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