Dad is an emotional short story about family, love, loss and the things we sometimes leave unsaid. When Ray arrives at the hospital just minutes too late to see his father, he is left thinking about their life together—and all the words he never found the courage to say. Set in Britain, this story provides plenty of opportunities for English learners to develop their reading, vocabulary, speaking and discussion skills.
The complete lesson includes reading comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, discussion questions, a role play, a classroom debate and a creative writing activity. Teachers can use the complete story or work through the story section by section with comprehension questions after each part.
1. Look at the title “Dad.” What do you think the story might be about?
2. Do you think most people find it easy to talk about death and loss? Why or why not?
3. Do you think it is easy or difficult for people to say “I love you” to close family members?
4. What kinds of things do families often talk about when they want to avoid deeper feelings?
5. Why do you think people sometimes wait until it is too late to say the things that matter most?
Listen to the Story
Watch the video above and listen as the story is read aloud. Pause after each section to answer the reading comprehension questions or discuss the story with your class.
Dad
Ray arrived less than five minutes too late.
His sister looked up at him, a gentle, broken smile on her face.
“You just missed him,” she said softly.
Like he had stepped out for a walk. Like he’d be back in a bit.
Ray sat beside the hospital bed and stared at his father’s face.
He looked like he was sleeping—peaceful now, free of pain. There was even a faint smile on his lips.
For a fleeting moment, Ray imagined him opening his eyes and saying, “I don’t feel so bad now.”
He almost smiled at the thought, but it crumbled.
The doctor approached quietly, and his sister stepped away. She touched Ray’s shoulder gently before moving to the far end of the ward.
Ray reached for his father’s hand. It was already cold.
Too cold. Too fast.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” he whispered, his voice breaking in his throat. “I tried to get here in time… I wanted to see you. I just…”
But what?
Work?
Meetings?
Deadlines?
All the things that seemed urgent until this moment—now meaningless.
The last six months had been hell.
His father, once strong and loud and full of life, reduced to a hospital bed, his body weakened by cancer.
Every visit had followed the same safe script.
Football.
Weather.
Ray’s job.
His father’s house.
And yet, even dying, he worried about the small things.
“Can you take those old newspapers to the recycling centre?”
Ray had nodded and done it.
Mundane tasks. As if normal life might hold everything together.
In his father’s house, Ray had sat in silence, staring at the walls.
The place felt wrong—too still, too hollow.
A strange, stale scent lingered in the air. The smell of absence.
Just weeks before, the TV had been blaring and his father had shouted from the kitchen,
“The football’s just started!”
He came in holding two giant mugs of tea.
Now it was all just memory.
Ray breathed in the sterile hospital air, heavy with disinfectant.
“Dad…” he murmured.
Tears spilled down his cheeks.
All the words he’d meant to say. All the things he thought he had time to say.
I love you, Dad.
But he never said it. Not once.
They had spent hours together.
Talking football.
Arguing politics.
Laughing at stories.
The pub was their place. His dad would have everyone in stitches.
The landlord would grin and say, “Look out—here comes trouble,” and pour two pints before they even asked.
“I don’t know why I come here,” his dad would joke. “All I get is bad remarks from the staff.”
Ray smiled at the memory. It played in his mind like an old film—grainy and faded at the edges.
He leaned in close, studying his father’s face.
Unshaven. Quiet. Still.
“Dad,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here enough. Sorry I missed you at the end.
But I need to tell you something…”
He paused, breath catching.
“You were the greatest dad I could ever have wished for.
You gave us everything.
Food on the table, clothes on our backs.
You helped me through school—even when you didn’t understand my studies, you still supported me.
You’d call and ask how things were going, and I’d talk, and I knew you didn’t get most of it, but you still listened.
You were proud of me anyway.”
Ray closed his eyes.
“We didn’t see each other much sometimes, but when we did, it was always good.
Football. Stories. Laughter.
It was the best.”
He choked up.
“I love you, Dad. I’ll always love you.
And I’ll always miss you.
You were my best friend.”
His voice cracked, and the tears flowed freely.
He lowered his head, resting his forehead on his father’s hand.
It was cold—but the skin still felt rough. Familiar.
Years of hard work.
When he looked up, his sister was standing at the end of the bed. Her eyes were glassy.
“That was beautiful, Raymond,” she said.
“I’ll miss him,” Ray said quietly.
She nodded. “We all will.”
Ray stood and wiped his face with the back of his hand.
“What would Dad have wanted us to do right now?”
His sister gave a small laugh and rolled her eyes.
“Go to the pub. Have a pint on him.”
Ray smiled.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, he would.”
He glanced down at his father one last time.
Then he took a breath, and together they walked out of the ward—into the living world, carrying him with them.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1. Who are the two main characters we see at the beginning of the story?
2. Where does the story take place?
3. Why has Ray come to the hospital?
4. What has happened to Ray’s father?
5. How does Ray’s father’s hand feel when he touches it?
6. What three things may have stopped Ray from arriving earlier?
7. How long has Ray’s father been ill?
8. What was Ray’s father like before he became ill?
9. What four things did they talk about when Ray came to visit?
10. What small task did Ray’s father ask him to do?
11. How does the story describe the father’s house?
12. What was the house like when Ray’s father was still living there?
13. What can Ray smell in the hospital air?
14. What does Ray do as he thinks about all the things he never said to his father?
15. What words did Ray wish he had said to his father?
16. Before his father became ill, what did they spend time talking about?
17. Where did Ray and his father like to go together?
18. How did the people at the pub react when Ray’s father arrived?
19. What does Ray compare the memory to?
20. What does Ray say to his father in this section? Answer in your own words. Start your answer with: “Ray says…”
21. What does Ray finally tell his father?
22. What does Ray call his father at the end of his speech?
23. What does Ray do after he finishes speaking?
24. How does his father’s hand feel?
25. What does the roughness of his father’s hand tell us about his life?
26. When Ray looks up, who does he see?
27. What does she say to him?
28. What does Ray’s sister say their father would have wanted them to do?
29. Why does the suggestion make Ray smile?
30. What does Ray do before leaving the ward?
31. How does the story end?
Essential Vocabulary
gentle | broken smile | softly |
peaceful | faint | fleeting |
crumble | approach | whisper |
breaking (voice) | meaningless | urgent |
weaken | mundane | linger |
absence | stale | blaring |
sterile | disinfectant | murmur |
spill | choke up | crack (voice) |
forehead | rough | familiar |
hollow | unshaven | in stitches |
landlord | grin | pour |
remark | staff | grainy |
fade | lean in | pause |
proud | support | glassy |
nod | wipe | glance |
Vocabulary Practice Exercise
Follow the steps below to help you learn and remember new words and phrases more effectively:
Write each new word or phrase in your vocabulary notebook.
Look up the meaning of each word in your dictionary. Write a clear and simple definition next to the word.
Create your own sentence using the word or phrase correctly. Try to make the sentence meaningful and connected to your own life or experiences.
Examples
Gentle – kind and soft in manner.
Example sentence: The nurse spoke to the frightened child in a gentle voice.
Whisper – to speak very quietly.
Example sentence: He leaned in and whispered the secret so no one else could hear.
Why do this?
Doing this regularly will help you improve all areas of your English — reading, writing, speaking, and listening. By writing definitions and making your own examples, you are actively using the language, which helps it stick in your memory.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Ray struggles to say “I love you” to his father while he is still alive?
2. Do you think families often avoid saying important things to each other? Why?
3. Why might people talk about “safe” topics, like football or the weather, instead of their real feelings?
4. What do you think the story suggests about regret?
5. Why does Ray agree to small, mundane requests, like taking the newspapers to the recycling centre?
6. What do you think the “smell of absence” in his father’s house represents?
7. Why do memories sometimes feel “grainy and faded,” like an old film?
8. Do you think it is ever too late to say something meaningful to someone, even after they have died?
9. What do you think the pub represented for Ray and his father?
10. Why do you think the sister suggests going to the pub instead of staying at the hospital?
11. What does the story suggest about how men, in particular, express love and emotion?
12. Do you think Ray’s father knew he was loved, even without hearing the words?
13. Why might people find it easier to show love through actions, like providing for a family, rather than words?
14. What do you think this story is really about — death, love, or regret?
15. Have you ever wanted to say something important to someone but did not get the chance?
16. Why do you think work and deadlines feel so urgent in daily life, but suddenly meaningless in a moment like this?
17. What role does humour play in how the family copes with loss?
18. Why might rituals, like going to the pub, help people process grief?
19. Do you think it is healthy to talk openly about death, or is it better left unsaid?
20. What would you want to say to someone you love, if you knew you might not get another chance?
Get the Full Lesson Plan
Enjoyed Dad? You can download the complete lesson plan and use the story in your English class.
The lesson plan includes reading comprehension questions, vocabulary exercises, discussion questions, a role play, debate activity, creative writing task, and complete answer sections.
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