My Dad – he took on my recently widowed Mum and her four kids (of which I was the youngest), and transformed our lives. We were penniless when we met him, Mum was at her wits end, and I can’t imagine us kids were much help. But Dad gathered us in, married Mum, legally adopted us his own children a year later, and they have never looked back. His financial savvy meant that Mum never had to worry about money ever again (they’ve never been rich, but he’s sensible with money and they’ve never had any debt to speak of).
We kids were able to take all opportunities that came my way, which is how I ended up being a musician. My Dad’s not musical at all, but his support through years of practice, going to orchestra and other musical groups after school, etc etc (not to mention buying the instruments) gave me the ability to blossom.
If only my birth-father were still alive, I’d be an interesting case of nature vs nurture, as I am SO strongly like my Dad – he’s been the biggest influence in my life by far.