My father died a week before my son was born. Everybody always says, ‘How awful’ and of course it was. But, and I say this as an agnostic without any firm ideas about souls or whatnot, I always figured, he knew he wasn’t going to get to see his grandson grow up, so why not meet him in advance? Hang out, tell him some jokes, make sure he knows about whiskey and oysters. My son looks a lot like my father.