This word presence - what does it mean?

The first time the word presence, made an impact in my memory, was in my father.

As he neared his death in a bed in a hospital room - a little over a year ago - I remember this word: presence.

He was the person who first brought some meaning of this word to life (you might say), when I was but a young child many years ago. One day, as my father extended an act of kindness to a stranger on the street, I remember seeing the face of Light as a reflection on his face, and this to my childlike mind was like a vision of the presence of God revealed. Now, many years later in the final days of his life, I find myself in his presence once again as I sit with him in his room, and as his health and voice slowly starting to vanish from him, the word presence is mentioned by him this time, as he points his hand towards the heavens above.

The attempt in my diminutive way to challenge a search or true meaning of this word: presence,
will be a simple form of trying to honor the memory of the man who brought great light into my own life by his own living of this word - my father.