The Lion King (my story)

I’m sure most of you have watched or at least heard about Disney animated musical “The Lion King”. If not, here is a summary:

“The Lion King presents the story of a lion cub’s journey to adulthood and acceptance of his royal destiny. Simba begins life as an honoured prince, the son of the powerful King Mufasa. The cub’s happy childhood turns tragic when his evil uncle, Scar, murders Mufasa and drives Simba away from the kingdom. In exile, the young lion befriends the comically bumbling pair of Pumbaa the warthog and Timon the meerkat, all three of them live a carefree jungle life. As he approaches adulthood, he is visited by the spirit of his father, who instructs him to defeat Scar and reclaim his rightful throne”.

The cartoon was released the same year as when my dad died. Since then I saw a connection between me and Simba. Possibly every weekend I had my own time of me watching cartoon and crying, I felt that I am not alone in my sorrow.

That was a horrible time to be honest with you, I was 8, I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was preparing to go to school and waiting for my mom to drop me off and for my elder sister to come from school.  Waiting and waiting, no sign of mom or sister, so I sat on a stool by the window waiting for them both to come.

And then a phone rang, I picked up the phone and there was a male voice telling me “Your dad died”, I thought it’s a phone prank or wrong number so put the phone down (What else you can expect from  8 year old). Then phone rang again, the same man telling me the same thing “Your dad died”, I put the phone down.

Few minutes later my mom and sister came home, they were a bit weird, upset more like. So I asked what happened, my sister said she got “C” for one of the subjects, which was virtually impossible for my A-star sister, I thought that “now I understand why she is so upset I would be too if I knew I had C”. So little did I know.

Couple days later mom told me that my dad died, it was the end of the world for me and still is. Next year it is going to be 20 years since he died and it feels like I miss him and need him more and more. He is the missing piece in my life. I don’t care was he good or bad, I just know that regardless of all the things he would be my perfect dad, the dad I needed all my life.

I know you can’t turn clock back, but if only I had a chance I would give him the biggest hug in the world and would never let him go...

In July this year me and my husband went to see The Lion King Musical, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought and even made a joke about it that I guess I need lots of tissues with me. And when the show started that very second I had the biggest waterfall. It all came back to me, all my memories of sitting on a sofa, watching the cartoon and crying because my and Simba’s dads died and the pain reminding me that he is not with us, but will be always in my heart.