While this past weekend celebrated Labor Day in the U.S. it was also Father's Day in Australia. Unfortunately, the day became somewhat bittersweet for actor Hugh Jackman, who said goodbye to his own father, Christopher John Jackman, in the early hours of Sunday morning. He was 84-years-old.
In a post on Twitter Hugh Jackman focused on he positive, as he stated he was filled with gratitude for the life that his father lived, rather than dwelling on the sadness that comes with his loss. Check out Jackman's full statement below.
Hugh Jackman's relationship with his father was a special one because Christopher Jackman raised Hugh and two of his siblings as a single father after his mother left when Hugh was a child. So when Jackman says his father devoted his life to his family, he means that quite literally. The actor's Instagram includes numerous tributes to his father on previous Father's Days, both the Australian and the American Father's Day, showing just how much the man meant to him. They were obviously quite close through their lives. While the man may be gone now, those tributes will likely continue.
Hugh Jackman made an identical post to Instagram announcing his father's passing. Several notable names responded to the post, including Jackman's friend, and on-screen rival Ryan Reynolds, who said, "I was lucky to have met him." It seems Hugh Jackman's dad touched lives beyond those of his children.
Losing a parent is certainly a tough experience. On the one hand, it's something nearly everybody goes through. Something that we know will happen one day in the future. At the same time, few of us are every truly ready for it when it comes. It's unclear if the elder Jackman had been battling illness or if this was a more sudden passing. It was, at the very least, peaceful, which is sometimes all you can hope for. Once it happens, all you can really do is move forward and remember them, and be the person that they believed you could be.
Christopher Jackman clearly made an impression on his youngest child, and was a major influence in the man he would become. So in that way all of us have been touched by him, even if we haven't realized it. Hugh Jackman wouldn't be the man, or the actor we all know, and that so many love if it weren't for the man that raised him. Our thoughts are with Hugh Jackman and his family on this difficult day.
