"It Only Brought Us Closer" — People Are Sharing Their Most Cherished Moments With Their Dads, And It's Heartwarming

Father's Day is just around the corner! If that comes as a surprise, you might want to start thinking about buying him a gift (which I know for 75 percent of you will either be grilling supplies or a WWII book). I love Father's Day, so in honor of fathers everywhere, I decided to ask our very own BuzzFeed Community to share their most cherished memories with their dads; and reader, they did not disappoint. So, from cute to sad to funny to heartwarming, here are some of the best.

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1."From day one, my dad was my ride-or-die. My parents divorced when I was 5, but he never left my life. When I was an angry teenager, Dad recognized I needed more than just therapy. He started buying me concert tickets and drove me to any show in the city I wanted. When I was old enough to drive, I'd stay with him and go to two or three shows a week."

"He died of cancer in 2016. One of the best memories I'll always carry with me is he would stay up to gossip after every show. I'd tell him everything. Sometimes if he felt up to it, we would get late-night IHOP. Being able to be open and honest with my dad kept me safe and kept my relationships with others healthy."

—Anonymous

2."My favorite memories with my dad were when we would go to the custom classic car shop he owned and work together. When it was just us, everything was so calm and he was happy and always joking. We would always go out for lunch, and later, a gas station snack. While most girls were going to the mall and painting their nails, I was changing tires and fixing alignments with my dad!"

3."My dad worked at a university. Sometimes he'd pick me up from elementary school and take me to the university food court for lunch. I thought I was so cool and sophisticated eating at Burger King while my fellow students ate school cafeteria food."

—Anonymous

4."I moved in with him and my mom permanently [at] age 6 after my biological 'dad' chose another woman over seeing me regularly (even though he had majority custody because of my schooling and my mom's job). One day a few months later, we went to take the dogs for a walk and I asked if I could call him dad. He cried."

5."My favorite memory is when my dad taught me how to drive. Every Sunday for a few hours when he could, we'd go cruising, listen to music, and talk. Being a daddy's girl who shared his birthday, it only brought us closer."

6."There are so many good memories of my dad. He passed away 15 years ago. My favorite one, though, goes back to the summer of 1978. He, along with his brothers and cousins, installed an in-ground pool at our house, and they built a new deck. They built the pool in the sunniest part of the yard."

"The problem was, there was no entrance on that side of the house — just windows. We had to exit on the other side of the house and walk around it to get to the pool, and we did this for months. It was inconvenient, particularly when BBQing, and with two little kids, the onus was clearly on Mom to get a lot of steps in. One day, Mom was heading out to go grocery shopping. Dad asked if there was anything he could do while she was gone. She said, shortly, 'Yes. Put a door on that side of the house.'

"Well, I never saw anything appear as fast as that chainsaw! By the time the station wagon left the driveway, Dad was ripping through the wall. By the time Mom returned, the whole wall was gone, framing and all. She was shocked that he took her direction so literally! By nightfall, the framing was rebuilt, and the door was installed. Dad finished the rest of the work over the next few days. Despite the mess that needed to be cleaned up, we were all relieved by the new door and it served us well for many years."

—Anonymous

7."My best memories of my dad are the four years that he drove me to school every morning in high school. We would talk, laugh, listen to Howard Stern before he went to satellite radio, and stop at Dunkin' every morning — he'd always get coffee and a sour cream donut, and I'd get a muffin and a chai. He would quiz my knowledge of '80s rock bands as they came on the radio ('OK, who's this? I'll give you a hint...if they aren't from here they are a....Foreigner!' or, 'Is this Van Halen one, two, or three?')."

8."I was in choir back in middle school. My dad said he would try to show up to my concert but that he most likely wouldn’t be able to go. I was really looking forward to it. As I was going down to sing my solo, I saw my dad smiling at me. It was the best memory I had of him."

—radiantoctopus824

9."He was the biggest feminist I knew, even before I knew what the word meant. The first time we talked about my long-term plans and I did not mention marriage, he was cool with it; just asked me why I thought it wasn't necessary."

10."My father died in 2014. In the '60s in the UK, the railway was phasing out steam traction on the national network British Rail. This was completed in 1968, but in southeast England where we lived, the end came on July 9th, 1967, although very few steam locomotives had been seen locally for several years and they were a real rarity. My father had never been one prone to getting excited, and was quite serious in demeanor."

11."I was going through a huge Will Smith phase and saw he was doing a festival in the UK. I tempted [my dad], thinking it was £75 for two tickets — turns out that was for one. We went anyway and spent the day in Blackpool on the beach then spent the evening dancing to the '90s songs screaming and yelling and making scenes as he does. [My dad's] a huge, 6'1 Scouser, people always get scared of him but he is my absolute best friend."

12."When I was getting married, before I walked down the aisle I was about to cry from happiness. To keep me from crying, he played 'Kiss the Girl' from The Little Mermaid, my favorite childhood movie. We sang it together and I was able to keep it together and not cry."

13."My dad was in and out of my life, but when I was 24, he was homeless, and we decided to get an apartment together. I was a single mom, raising two girls, and working seven days a week. One evening we were chatting and he said, 'I don't know how you do it. You're stronger than I ever was.' He passed by the time I was 27, but we had a decent relationship for his final years."

—ammarch41

14."When I was about 16 and going through my first heartbreak, my dad came home from work with a dozen roses and a key lime pie for me as a surprise. He made me feel so loved. That was over ten years ago. I love my dad."

15."I had terrible insomnia as a young child (around 3 or 4 years old), and my mom hated dealing with it. My dad worked nights until midnight. I would often still be awake when he got home, and my mom shoved me at him the second he walked in the door. So he started taking me for drives to get me to sleep.

"It didn't always work, so I began reading street signs, billboards, and things like that. He would laugh whenever I would say something I probably shouldn't have, but also didn't understand. His favorite one was going past a strip club, and me yelling, 'Daddy! It's a place for Mommy to go! It just says Girls! Girls! Girls!'""

—Anonymous

16."Look, I absolutely love my dad. He's the best dad I could have ever asked for. And with that said, I don't have a single 'best' memory with him — I just remember always, ALWAYS knowing how much he loved me, just based on how much he was willing to play video games with me (T2 arcade game and Fred Couples golf being two of our favorites), how he would ALWAYS record episodes of The Simpsons, Futurama, and King of the Hill so we could watch them together, or how very many times he took me to the movies when I was younger (for example, the Lord of the Rings movies - four times for the Fellowship, five times for the Two Towers, [and] three times for Return of the King)."

Fox / Via giphy.com

"My dad has always given so much of himself and his time to make sure I was happy, which I appreciate even more now that I'm older and I look back at the very bad times I experienced living with my step-dad."

—invasivemage

17."I remember going to my family's lake cabin for a few weekends. My dad and the rest of the extended family all made it, and we went boating, to a nearby amusement park, out for ice cream, jet skiing, and anything else fun on the lake. I can't believe I got 'too cool' for spending those weekends with him once I was a teenager. I'd give anything to have one such a weekend again as an adult."

18."My dad was a hiker and mountaineer, and he helped me beat the Grouse Grind in Vancouver, BC. It was challenging and I was in defeatist mode, but I hustled my ass through the climb with his encouragement, and he bought me champagne at the top. Every time I encounter an obstacle in life that seems insurmountable, I remember my dad guiding me up that mountain."

19."When I was 16 or so, I was really into rap, so I decided to take up writing and making my own songs. None were very good, although at the time I thought they were all brilliant and groundbreaking, so I used to excitedly talk to my dad about it all the time. He never really understood the appeal and showed very reserved support for it, so eventually I learned to keep it from him, and to write in private. One day, I came home from school, to see my dad standing in the kitchen, clutching a bit of paper."

"I asked him what was up, but he just gestured at me to sit down. I did so, and he promptly began reciting a rap of his own making. It was all about how he had the coolest daughter ever and how he loved her, whenever, whatever. ('My name is Glen, I have the coolest daughter ever, yeah you gotta know I love her whenever, whatever!' Actual line.) After he finished, I gave him a big round of applause and a hug, and he quietly said, 'We’re both rappers now, so you can talk to me about it whenever.' I love my dad."

—Anonymous

20."My dad wasn’t around when I was a kid. But now as an adult living my own life, he’s really stepped up and become a huge part of my life. He is my biggest support now and we’ve made amends. Just seeing how much he’s changed and hearing him apologize and live up to those apologies is the best thing he’s ever done as a dad. He’s now loving being close to my daughter and it’s a blessing they get to have a great grandpa in their young years that I missed with him growing up."

21.And finally: "My parents divorced when I was 4, and my dad traveled a lot for work, so my mom got full custody. I got to see my dad every other weekend, but this was before the days of texting or FaceTime, when you get charged extra for calling long-distance, so we didn't get a lot of bonding time during the year. Every summer, though, he got me for two weeks straight, and we would go on road trips all over the country."

Happy Father's Day, everyone! That last one made me tear up a little. If you have your own memory to share, please feel free to divulge in the comments down below. Or, if you prefer, check out this anonymous Google Form. Your story may be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post!