Natalie Paul Instagram – I want to tell you a little bit about this amazing man, Gerard Paul – loving husband to my mom, brilliant architect and teacher… and my Dad. It has been a month today that he is gone. Still hurts, still so strange to wrap my brain around.
My dad was truly such an imaginative, genius artist who loved his people. He was complex and layered, a person full of stories, successes and disappointments, dreams and ideas and designs up until his last breath. My father loved art – music, movies, sculpture, dance… He felt it was essential and could change lives because of how it changed and enriched his. He believed in me, encouraged me and taught me to be limitless in my being, thinking and creating. Every time I see a skylight I will see you Daddy.
He urged me and my sister to hold true to ourselves and be proud and never let us forget how beautiful we were. Imprinted on me in ways big and small that our Blackness and the Haitian blood in our veins contained a universe of power — and yet was also just a fraction of how extraordinary we were.
If you’re out there holding as much grief as cheer this season you are not alone. It’s okay to hurt through the celebrating and it’s okay to love through tears. I have never felt so much sadness as I have in the last month that sometimes it feels like it has physically and permanently changed me.
The task now is to live on with you in my heart Daddy. I know our connection is not broken just in a different form. Thank you Daddy. Thank you for loving me so much. Thank you for teaching me so much. Thank you so much for inspiring us and loving us and fighting for us with the heart of a champion. I love you forever. | Posted on 30/Dec/2022 04:13:46
