Linsey Dempsey was just two when her armed response officer father was killed on duty by a drunk driver.
Now, just over three decades later, the 33-year-old Scot is in the force herself - and has ended up following in his footsteps by becoming a firearms officer.
Although she has no memories of her father, her inspiring story led to her being asked to represent fallen Scottish officers at the annual National Police Memorial Day in Coventry last month as a candle lighter.
PC Dempsey, who is married to another serving officer, said: 'I was only two and a half when my dad died so I don't remember him.
'I don't know who he was as a person so it can sometimes feel as if I'm just talking about somebody else.
'It doesn't feel like it's my life, or it feels at times like I could be talking about anybody, because I didn't know who my dad was.'
PC Stuart Simpson - affectionately called Bart - died on March 28, 1994, aged just 26, when his police car was struck head-on by a car travelling in the wrong direction at high speed on the M8 in Glasgow.
The female driver of the vehicle, who was drunk, was also killed in the collision, while the officer's colleague was badly injured.
PC Dempsey told the 1919 magazine that despite what happened to her father, joining the police was always something she wanted to do.
With unconditional offers for five different universities under her belt when she left school, she made an agreement with her mother Gillian that she would get a degree before joining the force.
After studying criminal justice - and working as a special constable while at university - she became a PC at 22.
When she joined Police Scotland, there were still people in the force who remembered her father from the Strathclyde Police days. They made a point of getting in touch with her to share stories and memories.
She recalled how some older officers approaching retirement contacted her: 'When I first started, I had five or six different emails from a few high-ranking officers who said they'd heard I'd joined, and they worked with my dad and remembered him.
'If it wasn't for other people's memories of my dad, I wouldn't have anything. Other people's photos, videos, newspaper articles, stories, anything anybody can tell me - that's all I have.'
When she was old enough, PC Dempsey read through the newspaper articles her grandparents had kept from the time of her father's death.
She also looked through the thousands of sympathy cards her mother had been sent, most from complete strangers who wanted to offer words of comfort.
PC Dempsey said: 'You go through different stages of grief growing up. I grew up a lot quicker than most kids because of the experiences I'd had.'
Her father's name is one of 350 engraved onto the memorial stones at Police Scotland's Tulliallan HQ in Kincardine, which she has visited with her mother.
PC Dempsey said: 'As much as it's nice to remember, for my mum it's still very painful to do every year.
'As much as my mum never wanted me to join the police, she's very proud that I have done.
'Obviously the last time she ever saw my dad, he walked out the door with his uniform on and he never ever came home.
'Now I do that on a regular basis and she has to watch that. It can't be easy for her.'