When my sister and I were little, as soon as we heard his keys rattle the lock, we would run to meet our father at the door. We cheered and jumped into his arms. He later told us that he made sure to shake his keys extra hard so that we could hear him coming.

What he didn’t know, was that on the nights he didn’t come home, we knew something was wrong, we felt alone, we felt scared, and we felt unsafe.

My father is the funniest man I know. He’s always smiling, ready to serve up a well-timed joke, ready to make the saddest person in the room laugh. We laugh a lot when we are together.

He’s the life of every party. He’s also a serial cheater.