Family
It was a day in the middle of July and it felt like the devil relocated his home to the streets of Birmingham. It seemed as though if the sweat from a person’s brow were to hit the ground, the ground would produce its own “sizzling” sound effect. Needless to say, it was hot. As an only child, I leaned on my cousins for the love that some may only think a sibling could produce. We grew up together and on that hot summer day my mother and I had a dinner date at Pizza Hut, so we didn’t join everyone else around the dinner table. I wondered what it would be like to see him since he was never around. When we got there, he sat at the table and greeted me like I was his own little princess. “Hey, Baby Girl,” he said. I responded with about as much of a smile as I could produce at that moment and said, “Hey, Dad.” He let me order sausage pizza, which was my favorite as we talked and caught up like old high school buddies do years after they graduate. He asked how I was doing in school and I told him that my grades were fine. At that point I was in the fifth grade because our dinner was to celebrate my graduation. After he and my mom discussed work and made sure every family member was still breathing, it was time to say our goodbyes. I didn’t know that would be the last time I would see the man that called me his baby girl. This last encounter was not due to a funeral and an obituary in the Sunday edition of The Birmingham News. He just didn’t have the desire to be in our lives anymore. Although this may be the same story of a lot of girls in my city that had the thoughts of “just why didn’t he want me,” in their heads. It is something that has continued to shape who I am. It gave me a certain confidence and passion for greatness and I hope it gave others who felt the void I felt in my life the same thing. Financially my mother held her own, if she needed help with anything she would ask my grandmother. With the lack of a father as a support system in my life, it gave me more of a desire to make my mother proud every chance I got. It seems that being independent is a spirit that many southern women possess.
The next and final post will conclude the series and sum up my feelings and emotions about the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Thanks for reading!
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