A DAD LIKE NO OTHER

As Father's Day approaches, Andrea Kapos, 49, shares the important lessons she's learnt from her dad, Stephen

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A lot of people might say their dad is their hero, and I know I'm lucky when I say I've always looked up to mine. Right from childhood, where he poured time and effort into making intricate hand-drawn birthday cards for me, to my teen years when he'd put up with my antics as I'd bunk off school. As I got older we'd engage in many a debate about current affairs around the dinner table, and in more recent years, I've been inspired by him and have joined him at anti-war protests. To put it simply, my dad Stephen has been one of the most influential people in my life and this Father's Day, I'm proud to be able to share his story...

CHILD OF WAR

When I was a child, Dad worked long hours as an architect, arriving home just in time for some precious moments before my older brother Peter, then 10, and I went to sleep. 'Tell me something about the war, Daddy,' I'd ask Dad, then 45. Aged seven, I vividly remember him perched on the end of my bed as he shared stories about his childhood: it sounded so full of adventure. It was only as I grew up that I began to understand the true horror of it all.

Being Jewish, Dad's family had been targeted when the Nazis invaded Hungary, but he had only been seven years old and naive to what was unfolding around him. 'I was just a little boy. Seeing the German tanks rolling through the streets was exciting, until it was all undermined by the humiliation of having to wear a yellow star. In a way, I was fortunate not to have really understood what was actually happening,' he told us.