Do You Have A Daughter?

Not all daughters live up to expectations. I wanted a thin one with dark eyes. I would adore her and be an exemplary father. People would come to me for advice on exemplary fatherhood. I planned DIY manuals. Isabel made no attempt to be adorable or thin. Aided and abetted by her mother she ate her way into the record books. Her school life was fraught with conflict. They called her The Blob but she responded to the enigmatic Finzi. Was it Finzi who suggested a visit to Oradour-sur-Glane, a French village massacred by German SS troops? I was forced reluctantly to take her. For me it was a revelation. Who was this girl, my daughter, moved to tears by her experience? Had I ever understood the first thing about her?