Today I celebrate Father's Day without a father. It would have been my dad's 73rd birthday today, but he died in 1996. My father-in-law, with whom I was closer than I was with my biological father, passed away last fall.

Sometimes I feel destined to be fatherless. I felt that way while growing up, too. My dad lived in the same house, but he was in his own world of suffering. Undiagnosed depression and a difficult childhood made it impossible for him to establish bonds with us. I was...