I know from experience that these things are usually said to cover the hurt: I will say I don’t need you before you show you don’t need me. The media portrays men as inept, while women are warriors-especially Black women … Some women hint or shout out that they don’t need a man or a father. This world pushes for a merging of parental roles. “For understandable reasons, our culture tells us every day that women like her can. Linne describes why, despite the insistence of our culture, a mother cannot be a father. And I’m glad to say that Finding My Father has proven helpful. I know that to do that, I will need to better understand the particular struggles that are theirs. The reason I read her book is that I know a number of people who have grown up without fathers and I am eager to know how to better love, serve, and support them. But that story is her’s and is best told in her own words. And while Blair was much loved by her mother, she remained distant from her father-or the man she believed was her father. She determined she would pursue an abortion, but was dissuaded by a pastor and soon gave birth to Blair. Her mother was young when she had her first child and was young still when she became pregnant with her second. It almost didn’t exist at all, because I almost did not.” This piece of paper was seldom referred to. So my birth certificate, like many others, tells by omission the story of a mother and father who were never married.

The inside of the narrow, barren horizontal box has neither been struck through nor erased. She begins in this way: “The section on my birth certificate reserved for my father’s name is blank. Sponsor Show Your Support Become a Patron

Finding My Father by Blair Linne