The First Father's Day Without Dad — How to Get Through It

Nobody warns you about the first Father's Day without your dad.

People prepare you for the funeral. They check on you in the weeks after. But the holidays — the ones that used to be his — those tend to arrive quietly and hit hard. Father's Day is one of the worst. The stores are full of cards you can't buy. The ads show dads grilling in the backyard. And somewhere in your chest, there's a weight that wasn't there last June.

If this is your first Father's Day without him, this is for you.

What you might be feeling — and why it makes sense

Grief doesn't follow a calendar, but it does respond to one. Anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays have a way of pulling loss back to the surface even when you thought you were doing okay. That's not a setback. That's just what love looks like when someone is gone.

You might feel sadness, obviously. But you might also feel anger — at the day itself, at people posting about their dads, at the randomness of loss. You might feel guilt if you find yourself laughing or forgetting for a moment. You might feel numb. All of it is normal. All of it is grief doing what grief does.

Give yourself permission to do it differently this year

The first Father's Day doesn't have to look like any Father's Day before it. You don't owe anyone a performance of okay-ness. Some ideas that have helped others:

Skip what doesn't serve you. If brunch with the extended family feels like too much, it's okay to stay home. If scrolling social media is painful, put the phone down. Protecting your peace on a hard day is not weakness — it's wisdom.

Create a small ritual just for him. Light a candle. Play his favorite song. Cook something he loved. Drive somewhere that reminds you of him. A ritual, even a simple one, gives grief somewhere to go instead of just sitting in your chest all day.

Visit his resting place. For many people, going to the grave on Father's Day is the most grounding thing they can do. It turns an abstract ache into something tangible — you were here, you came, you showed up for him one more time. Bringing something to leave — flowers, his favorite snack, a balloon — makes it feel less like standing in a parking lot of loss and more like a visit.

Talk about him. Say his name. Tell a story. Ask a sibling or your mom to share a memory. The fear that talking about him will make it worse is almost always wrong. Saying his name out loud is one of the most healing things you can do.

Let other people love you today. If someone reaches out, let them in. If someone wants to check on you, answer. Grief can make us want to disappear, but today is a day to let people who love you remind you that you're not alone in this.

What to say to yourself when the day gets hard

He knew he was loved. You don't need a card or a phone call or a backyard barbecue to prove that. Every ordinary day you spent with him — every time you called, every meal, every quiet moment — was the proof. He had you. That mattered.

And you still have him, in the way that people stay with us after they go — in the things they taught us, the jokes we still hear in their voice, the way we catch ourselves doing something exactly like they would have done it.

A small tribute for Father's Day

If you want to mark the day in a visible way, our Happy Heavenly Father's Day balloons are designed for exactly this — a heart-shaped foil balloon with angel wings, made to stand at the graveside or be placed at a home memorial. It won't fill the absence. Nothing will. But it's something to do with the love that has nowhere to go right now.

However you spend June 15th this year — whether at the cemetery, at home on the couch, or somewhere in between — we hope you feel him close.

Happy Heavenly Father's Day.

Browse our Father's Day memorial balloon collection → — order by June 12th for delivery before the 21st.