You’re a brick
“Thank you,” said my father as my children and I prepared to drive away for the last time on Sunday. “You’re a brick, honey.”
I knew that was a complimentary thing but never really had thought about where the phrase originated before.
“Brick of a man — A good, solid, substantial person that you can rely upon. The expression is said to have originated with King Lycurgus of Sparta, who was questioned about the absence of defensive walls around his city. ‘There are Sparta’s walls,’ he replied, pointing at his soldiers, ‘and every man is a brick.’” From the “Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins” by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).
It’s been a long journey over the past months for my sisters and me at my father’s house, culminating today in a moving van pulling away from an entirely empty residence. I hope the new owners can somehow tell that an invisible thing left behind within those walls is a lot of love.
If my sisters and I have been bricks this year, then it’s my father who has been the mortar. Thank you, Dad, I love you too.