Atomic Fusion

Imagine a father so strong and filled with character that he is the man of the house for both his daughter and his daughter's daughters. That's the story of Pamela Gwyn Kripke, who tells the tale of the dad she lost in the New York Times "Motherlode" blog.

The girls' father is on his fourth marriage and in the neighborhood. However, their grandfather — the one whose memory causes their mom to tear up almost every time it reappears — is the male presence in the house she cultivates.

In her childhood, Kripke always believed her father's morning wake up was a call for her to "up an atom." And so

"The phrase finds me when I need extra encouragement, which seems often, these days. It gives just enough of a jolt, and it makes me smile. It is also how we start our day in our girl house with the pink door. “Up an’ atom,” I call into each room. Time to get going.

Now there's a legacy.