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Today’s story-teller is professional golfer [W:Isao Aoki].

I have introduced Aoki several times in the past posts. Today, his story is mainly about his daughter.

Aoki has been divorced and remarried.

First, he says, “I think good and bad things cannot be separated from each other. You cannot say my ex-wife is bad and my current wife is good. I got to where I am now because I went through all the things. You win some and lose some in your life as well as playing golf. Everyone goes through the same thing.”

He has done a lot of things that he will never want to tell JoAnne, his daughter.

JoAnne is a daughter of Aoki’s current wife and her ex-husband’s. She was 10 years old and could not speak Japanese well when Aoki started living with her. Moreover, he could spend little time with her since he used travel around the world for golf tournaments all the time.

At the beginning, he was dreaming of her calling him ‘Otosan (dad)”. But he was too shy to ask her to do so.

About 2 years after they started living together, JoAnne said to him at dinner, “Otosan, my teacher said…”

Aoki interrupted her and said, “What did you just say?”

He asked her before he knew it. He was too shy to show how much he was moved by the words, he hid himself in his room and could not come out for quite a while.

According to JoAnne, she was actually practicing to say ‘Otosan’ to him and waiting for the opportunity.

Years pass, and the story is about when she was graduating high school.

He had his order to play the tournament to attend her graduation at the international high school.

Aoki says, “JoAnne received the graduation certificate and as she walked down the stage, my wife was waiting for her arms open to hug her. However, she passed my wife. She came to me and said, ‘Thank you, Otosan. I could not graduate from school without you.’ Then she hugged me. I was so moved and lost my words. I still melt into tears when I think about it. Being related by blood means nothing. It was a memorable day that I was convinced that 3 of us are connected through our heart.”

The NIKKEI 02/20/2010 by Isao Aoki (professional golfer)

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