Archive of Our Own

Mark,

I want to thank you on this first of many Father’s Days. Magda, Jude, Tom, and Shaz told me how different love for a child would be, and they were right. But my love for you is just as important, and I am so grateful.

Thank you for being there during my pregnancy. For the late-night snack runs to Tesco, no matter whether we’d just eaten a wonderful homemade dinner or there was already ice cream in the freezer but I wanted chocolate.

Thank you for not drinking wine with pizza, even though I told you to. Thank you for letting me control the remote and watching Frasier reruns and the entire Pride and Prejudice miniseries all weekend. Thank you for having the box of tissues ready when hormones made me cry because Darcy hurt Elizabeth during his first proposal by implying her family was unworthy of him.

Thank you for riding this big dipper of creating a family together, for knowing when I just needed you to hold my hand or take me on a special evening out. Thank you for being the world's nicest, most patient partner for nine months, for listening when I needed to vent about work and Daniel. Thank you for preparing the plainest pasta noodles anyone should ever have to cook and eating them with me when I couldn’t keep anything else down.

Thank you for asking how I felt every day. Even knowing your question would open up a litany of complaints about things I had no control over. Thank you for doing the cooking, the laundry, and the straightening. Actually, thank you for continuing to do all those things on top of the grocery pickup and finishing all the items on our joint to-do list. Thank you for showing me you care as often as you told me.

Thank you for never keeping score. I owe you forever for that alone.

Thank you for staying calm when William’s birth didn’t go as planned, for smiling when the room filled with nurses and doctors and I was terrified, for telling me everything was going to be all right, and for being the kind of person I trusted when you said it.

Thank you for being the first to tell me our child was a boy in a room full of medical staff. Thank you for taking my hand when you held William for the first time. My love for you grew immensely at that moment.

Thank you for keeping me sane in our first weeks at home with a new baby. For getting up at 2 AM to feed, change nappies, and rock him back to sleep without ever waking me. For helping me laugh when you discovered classical music was the only way to stop his crying after my Madonna songs annoyed him. And thank you for not saying a word when I lived in my penguin pyjamas for the first month.

Thank you for coming home after working all day to immediately take William so I could get a lovely, hot shower. And thank you for telling me how beautiful I looked when it wasn’t always easy (see pyjama comment above).

Thank you for helping so much during my maternity leave and understanding how hard it was for me to return to work. Thank you for entertaining him at night so I could write, then waking up early to help us both get ready (I hope he takes after you in that regard).

Thank you for making our first few months as parents a success. I’ve never left William in a shoppe, and you’ve taught me how to balance motherhood and working so that everything feels manageable and joyful. Every second with our little boy is a pleasure because of your help.

Thank you for our history and what got us here, but primarily for coming out the other side more in love than ever. Thank you for representing a girl band and supporting them, even if they did stage a women's rights protest that blocked our way to the hospital. I know you’ll raise our son to share your values where women are concerned. We are imperfectly perfect, making us a cool, mismatched team. You can teach William about British manners, and I can teach him how to break some of the rules.

Thank you for being a patient, fun and loving father. For making the best faces and crazy noises to keep him laughing so hard he can’t catch his breath. He adores you the same way I do. As a father, as in everything you do, you are kind, loyal and imperturbable, just as I always knew you would be. Because of your love, I am a better person and a better mum, and even though I'm wishing you a happy Father's Day, I hope you feel celebrated every single day. We love you.

“Bridget,” Mark said emotionally, sitting gently on the edge of the bed, tenderly cradling their infant son, holding the letter in his free hand. His left arm supported the baby's body and head, ensuring William’s comfort and safety. His facial expression was gentle and loving, reflecting the bond with his firstborn. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read.”

“Well, considering most of what you read are dry legal briefs, it’s not exactly a high bar,” she said, smiling mischievously.