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MY BLACK FATHER’S LEGACY By Katavia Larry, MBA-HRM, PHR
8 | BLACK IN HR
Army and gained many, many accolades and medals of honor. Reading his DD214* after his death brought back to my remembrance that even my career choice had been unconsciously influenced by my dad. He spent the last 13 of his 20 years in the military as a Human Resources Specialist. He chose that career path and he loved it and he loved that I chose HR too, just like him. I miss my dad and I can’t imagine life without him, but it is a reality that I am now forced to face. I appreciate all that he ever did for me and I made sure to let him know that as I was blessed to be able to care for him round the clock during the last several months of his life. I am forever grateful for that time; it was a priceless gift. I find solace in knowing although my dad is physically gone from this Earth, his presence is not because he not only fathered me and my brother, but so many countless others that came into his life. His legacy is one of faith, hard work, joy and laughter, and that is something that will live long after he does through the people he shared these things with and loved. I Love You Dad. u
PHOTO BY MIEKE CAMPBELL ON UNSPLASH
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AY 23, 2021, 5:35AM WAS A DAY that changed my life forever….it was the day I lost my father. As I write this, it has only been 2 months since that day and a little over a month since his burial. I know what the steps of grief are, and I know that I will go through them, but to what magnitude….is to be determined. My dad was an unforgettable force in this world, a strong man who although was short in stature, had a personality, laugh, and smile as big as the world. He became a father at the tender age of 22 and, in his words, not mine, I changed him forever. You see I don’t think he was prepared to get a girl first, but he did. My parents were both young when they had me, and just starting out in the world as young adults, but they were determined to raise both my brother and I the best way they could and that they did. Statistics would have you believe that Black fathers are largely absent from their children’s lives, and I‘m not saying that some aren’t, but mine was not one of them. “We cannot equate the number of unmarried dads to the number of “fatherless” children. First of all, marriage rates don’t necessarily reflect the number of Black fathers living with their children; as writer Josh Levs points out, the majority of Black dads (2.5 million of around 4.2 million) do live with their kids, even if they’re not married to their partner.”* My dad was one of those fathers. He and my mother did not marry until several years after my brother and I were born, but they were together, and my dad let it be known that he wasn’t going to allow another man to raise his kids. I am my father’s daughter. I’ve always known that, but as I grew into adulthood and these last 3 years of his life taught me even more so. My dad raised me to be strong, independent, and driven. He let me know that I was smart, beautiful, loved, that I could do and be anything I wanted to be. There’s not enough pages in this e-magazine to properly express what my dad meant to me. There will never be enough words to convey the impact that man had and will always have on my life. My father served 20 years in the US
*https://www.givelegacy.com/resources/the-truthabout-black-fatherhood/ *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD_Form_214
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