Relationships are like Lego – you build them block by block.
MY hubby loves to build things – car models, train sets, basically anything that requires assembly. If we were living in the US, he would no doubt try and build his own kit car in our home garage.
Whenever we watch television programmes featuring unusual or interesting homes, he never ceases to be amazed at how folks can actually build them with their own two hands instead of having a contractor do the job.
He was always ready to help me with my model-making when I was in architecture school, because that gave him an excuse to build.
For helping me glue on artificial grass and cutting balsa sticks to size, and well, also keeping me company when I had to spend Sundays in the studio to rush a submission and buying me supper when I worked late, he has earned the right to say that he has as good as graduated with a master’s degree in architecture.
For my 17th birthday, he built me a little car. It was a 1:24 scale model of a Mercedes-Benz SL500 set on an A3-size base. Instead of placing the engine under the bonnet, he extracted the parts, assembled the components and laid them out individually around the convertible centrepiece.
The most impressive aspect was not the car but the display case that he painstakingly cut out of acrylic, then meticulously glued together.
And just as the AMG mechanic who assembles the engine gets to leave his mark on a metal plaque atop the engine cover, my then-boyfriend proudly signed his name in one corner of his masterpiece.
The birthday present took my breath away – maybe even more so than the diamond solitaire he proposed with years later. He has given me countless other awesome gifts over the years, but that one still remains as the most memorable ever.
Now, as a father, he shares his love of building with our daughter. He loves buying her Duplo and Lego sets, and recently handed down to her some of his prized Lego sets from his childhood, all in pristine condition and lovingly kept in their original boxes.
Looking at the two of them enthusiastically building things, I always wonder who the real kid is.
Lynn remembers a quote shared by a friend on facebook: “every girl may not be queen to her husband, but she is always a princess to her father.”
