To give us an idea of his father's emotional distance, Peter remarked that a typical breakfast would consist of Henry reading the morning newspaper, holding it up in front of his face as a kind of barrier between him and his children. Occasionally the paper would come down, and Henry would bark out some mundane, utilitarian utterance, such as "Did you hang up the towels?" You see, for people like Henry Fonda, who grew up without hearing parental words of expressed love and emotional support, the human "language of emotion" is like a foreign tongue. When you think about it pragmatically, this makes sense: If you are rarely exposed to a language, you will learn very little of it, and as a result will have difficulty speaking it to others.

So great was Peter's need to hear his father's loving words of approval that he came up with a remarkable plan: He would teach Henry, who was now in his seventies, how to tell him that he loved him. And he would cleverly use one of his father's own strengths - his finely honed acting ability - to help carry it out. One day Peter told his father that he had "decided to write and direct a little home movie," and that Henry was to star in one of the scenes. His only line would read: "I Love You Very Much, Son." The twist is that the words would be said directly to Peter, who, "coincidentally," also had a part in his "movie." After much embarrassment and numerous stuttering attempts to get these seemingly harmless words out, to his credit, Henry finally learned them - and thereafter began providing Peter with the emotional nourishment his hungry soul had craved for years.

It gives one renewed hope to think of Henry Fonda fighting through a lifetime of emotional blockage, and managing to give his son at least a small portion of the expressed love that he had never received from his own father. And like many people with repressed emotions, once his feelings for Peter were finally unleashed, Henry found that he actually enjoyed telling his son that he loved him. And thus, for the last few years of Henry's life, Peter was able to experience the consoling words of paternal affection that he had always yearned for.