I remember taking my phone off airplane mode and my phone buzzing a lot more than usual, it had a bunch of missed whatsapp calls and messages from my siblings, they're much younger, so if it's not on snapchat, it had to be important. I was worried, because we live oceans apart. so when I reached out, I learned it was because they had a heartfelt conversation with our dad, well past midnight, when he at some point, broke down, and cried.  They were, to say the least, shocked.  They called because it had never happened before, though they finally felt heard, they were also scared for him. To see a mask of steel, melt like butter was at once heartening, and terrifying.   My father lived a tough life, as did his father before him, and his father before him.  In his drive to be all he understood a man, and father needs to be, he wore masks, that decades later had to come apart.