It was 20 years ago today that Mister Rogers died. The world lost one of the most loving, caring, joyous, silly, and creative people on the planet. He has always been a hero of mine. As a child I absolutely adored him. I watched his show all the time, sometimes with my mom and sister, sometimes on my own.

I loved Daniel Striped Tiger so much that I even wrote a play about him when I was six years old. It was my first piece of writing outside of a school assignment. Unfortunately, that play is lost to time. The only thing I really remember about it is that Daniel was being naughty. He kept opening and closing an oven door. Daniel was so sweet, giving, and fun.

I recently rewatched “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” because a group I’m part of planned to discuss the movie. Tom Hanks plays Mister Rogers in the film. For background, I read the Esquire article that the movie is loosely based on, rewatched the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” and watched an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is about a pessimistic and frustrated magazine writer named Lloyd Vogel. He can’t seem to let go of his anger over what happened with his parents when he was a child. The writer is assigned to write a piece about Mister Rogers, who quickly sees through Lloyd’s brusqueness to the pain the writer has been holding onto for so long.

Everyone I know who has watched this movie loves it and I love introducing people to it. Hanks received an Oscar nomination for his part.

I’ve watched several documentaries about Mister Rogers and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” is my favorite. In the documentary, Mister Rogers’ wife Joanne is talking about her husband. She shared that “I think Daniel was the real Fred.” That sounds exactly right to me.

Browsing through what was available, I picked an episode of the TV show from 1974 that I could watch on Prime Video, one I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen before. I felt immediately calm and taken care of, almost hypnotized. It wasn’t an especially good or bad episode, it just kind of was there. It simply helped me feel better than I was when I started watching it.

Watching those films, reading the article, seeing the Mister Rogers episode, and talking with my friends in the group about this wonderful man made me feel loved and comforted. One of my friends in that group called me a “Mister Rogers Kid.” I thought that was one of the nicest things anyone had ever called me.

An interesting side note: my dad received a puppet that looks a lot like Daniel about 10 years before Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was on the air. I’ve included a photo of “our” Daniel. My dad loved to play with him as a boy and my grandma kept Daniel so my sister and I could play with him when we were children. As you can see in the photo, my family has loved that little puppet so much he’s missing an eye. I love him just the same.