How is the father's death symbolic in the short-story, My Father, Dancing?

The symbolism of the father's death in "My Father, Dancing" is significant. The women in all of the stories must come to terms with the "death" of their fathers; that is, the death of the father they knew as perfect, their own private protector. They must do this in order to accept their fathers as fallible human beings, as men not gods, and as men with human frailties that these women never could recognize as a young girls.