Of course your dad's still around you. Even a hardboiled rationalist sceptic like me will agree with that. He's inside your head, he's integrated into everything you know about the world. Which, if you think in a vaguely Buddhist way (you don't see reality, you see what you think is reality) is the way he always was. So nurture him, and if you've got kids pass on the stories so he stays around for another generation. And write it all down, that could keep him going for many more years.

Tough time to have such sad but sweet memories, with the winter just getting miserable and the days so short, so why not celebrate a half- anniversary next time, in May?