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Evelin Ilves on Father’s Day in the Estonia Concert Hall 13th November 2011
13.11.2011
Dear fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and all future fathers! All families in Estonia!
A father and his children, his sons and daughters. These beautiful pictures that always warm the heart. They really are such beautiful and special pictures that the mother often doesn’t realise she is missing when she looks at them. The eyes of every father reflect the pride of an owner as well as the slightly short-sighted tenderness of a parent. And this glance is full of care and concern, which don’t have to be hidden behind the confident mask of another role in life. The person looking back at you is a real man in his best possible role, which is also the most important role of his life. Genuine and real. The look in the children’s eyes is also special. They are excited, because they are with their best friend and a big – sometimes the only real – example. These pictures are actually the favourite pictures of mothers. And they have not changed in their essence. It doesn’t matter if the picture is black and white, taken in the first half of the previous century, and the man in it wore his best church-going suit when he took his family to the photographer’s. Or a man and his children in various locations and clothes, their images saved on a memory card with a modern digital camera. The time and colour of the picture do not matter. The mood is still the same. Genuine and true. Everything is good, everything is right.
I would like to thank you, good fathers and grandfathers and men, for these beautiful photos that illustrate eternal values. I would also like to thank you for being there. For this price and tenderness and care. Happy Father’s Day! I am sure you know in your hearts that the role of a father is for life. This job and title are with you forever. It will last after the end of your lives and you will live on in the stories and memories of your children and grandchildren, and the photo albums of your families.
I want there to be numerous stories and pictures like these. I want there to be enough stories and pictures for everyone, and enough of the love they contain. I want to be carried across generations. More than today.
Unfortunately, we have many families that don’t have pictures like this or where such pictures end. Because all of a sudden, the father is somewhere else and not next to your child in the picture.
He may be a father in another place and in other pictures. The mother doesn’t really know and if there are pictures like that, she doesn’t see them. The mother is sad and worried, because there is now excitement in the child’s eyes, they no longer have the joy the company of their best friend and biggest example bring. Life is complicated and not all relationships last in the good and the bad, in sickness and in health until death do them part. But the children born from these broken relationships don’t have to understand the twists and turns of an adult’s life, and they certainly shouldn’t suffer because of them. There is only one father who brings their children joy and pride. And their disappearance hurts. It hurts a lot. It hurts so badly that it affects the souls and attitudes of children, the further lives of these little people, their own future families and children. I hope that Father’s Day will knock on the conscience of the fathers who have disappeared from the picture. Real men, tell and show them by example how great it is to be a good and loved father who is there for all of his children. Tell them that they are missing out big time, that something is lacking and they can make up for their absence if they want to do it. It is always possible to find the path that takes you back to your children. It may be a long and difficult path, you may fall and get hurt. But it is there and you will be met halfway. Please, step on this path, be there for your children, back in the picture.
A real man is a man how knows how to love, who is an example not only to his children, but also future fathers and other fathers. Examples make society stronger and healthier. This is why we name the Father of the Year.
Fellow citizens of Estonia, notice the good fathers and men around you. Let us tell them that we appreciate their love and care, and also the efforts they make, as social expectations and values force them to fill different roles and to be in many pictures. Let us tell them, our partners and husbands, our fathers and sons, today and also every other day, that they look the smartest, the best and the manliest when they are with their children. Happy Father’s Day!
