Today is my first Father’s Day without my father.

This is a hard reality. My emotions are raw, ranging from depression to pride.

My father Bill Geiser passed away in January 2017 after a hard-fought battle with esophageal cancer.

Not a moment has passed without me thinking about him and missing him. Dad and I had a special bond. He was more than just my father; he was my best friend.

Like I said to the crowd who gathered to pay their respects during his eulogy, “I won the Dad Lottery.”

I could not have asked for a better mentor, supporter, teacher and friend. Dad was always there for me. From when I was a small child teaching me how to swing a baseball bat, to an adolescent when he showed me the proper way to parallel park, to adulthood when he advised on the best techniques to paint the interior walls of my first house, my Dad was always there for me.

We bonded over everything, from cars, politics, and mainly sports. As Cincinnati natives, we spent countless hours watching the Reds, Bengals (mostly to get a laugh) and Bearcats basketball and football.

As I look back on the impact Dad has had on my life, the biggest lesson I have learned from him is the importance of being a good, honest family man.

My dad was married to my mom Dianna for more than 36 years when he passed away. They were unequivocally committed to one another and to their family. They were inseparable. Watching their love grow stronger over the course of three decades has been an inspiration to me when it comes to my own marriage of almost one year to my wife Nichole.

Many people do not know this, but Nikki was gracious enough to move up our wedding date by one whole calendar year due to my father’s illness. Nikki and I got engaged in May 2016 and no more than three weeks later we found out that my dad had cancer. Once we officially got the diagnosis that it was stage four E.C., we decided to get married on July 15, 2016, instead of July 15, 2017, in order for my Dad to be there and share that experience with us. He actually delayed his first chemotherapy treatments until July 18 in order to be at his best for our wedding.

I will forever be grateful to Nikki for being so considerate and understanding, sacrificing a traditional, big wedding for a small, intimate gathering of parents, grandparents and siblings at a public park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a beautiful day, with my Dad serving as best man, groomsman and ring boy.

Not only was my Dad tremendous to his own family, he was a “saint” to his mom, my grandmother, Jean. For years, I witnessed my Dad spending much of his time with Jean, who by the Grace of God spent her remaining years living independently in a two-family house that she purchased, despite having a prosthetic leg. If my Dad didn’t stop by her house every day, it was certainly at least every other day. Sometimes it would be to do some work on her house; him being a master craftsman and carpenter for over 30 years helped. Other times, it would simply to stop by and spend some time laughing with her.

I was not the only person who noticed how dedicated Dad was to his mother. The property managers of the house adjacent to Jean’s saw it. In the months since Dad’s passing, my mother reached out the property managers to gauge their interest in purchasing Jean’s home. During this exchange, the property managers revealed to Mom that they referred to Dad as “St. Bill” for his treatment of Jean. This filled my mom’s heart with joy and pride. That’s the type of person Dad was.

One of the things that I miss the most about Dad is his terrific sense of humor. It was one of his gifts and allowed him to forge so many friendships throughout his lifetime. His quick wit and smart-ass remarks could put even the most uptight person into tears of laughter.

While I may not be able to spend another Father’s Day with Dad playing catch in the outfield of Great American Ball Park (which we did in 2015), sharing a few beers in his immaculately-kept backyard, or later on in the future watch him play with his grandchild(ren); I will always spend it remembering his best qualities and how lucky I was to have him as my Dad for 33 years.

My Dad has inspired me to dedicate my life to being a good and better man to my wife, Nikki, and our family.

If I turn out being even just half the man my father was, then I will have felt like I have achieved the impossible.