What the surgery didn't take was the one thing that had always been mine — the ability to make something out of nothing. My father made sure of that. He brought me sketchbooks and pencils through every hospital stay, every trip for treatment. He never pushed me toward anything else. He just kept telling me: stay honest, keep working, and it will come back to serve you one day.

It did. Screen printing, shirts, stickers, real commissions, gallery shows in Kakaako. A growing name. I was building something, and I wanted the next show to be for him — the first time I'd publicly step into what would become Daccini Designs, named for his family name, Spadaccini.

He passed away the night before he was set to fly in for it.

I've built every project since with him in mind. Not as a weight, but as a standard — honesty, hard work, humility. That's what he gave me, and it's what I try to give every brand I build.