A GOOD FOUNDATION
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Thurman Weaver held jobs as a janitor and a chauffeur. But his life’s work was his family.
“My father was everything to me,” his son William said recently. “He made me feel that I could do anything I wanted to do.”
William recalled an evening from his teen years as he sat at the table struggling to do his algebra homework. When his father offered to help, the frustrated William snapped back, “Dad, they didn’t even have algebra in your day.” Defeated and angry, he went to bed.
Hours later, William’s father woke him up and led him back to the kitchen table.
While his son was sleeping, Thurman Weaver had been pouring our William’s math books, reading them from cover to cover. By 4.00am, Thurman was ready to give his son a tutoring session in algebra. Slowly, William grasped the subject as he worked through the equations. Before it was time to leave for school, William had completed his homework.
Today, William Weaver is an accomplished surgeon, educator, husband and father. He says, “To this day, I live my life trying to be half the man my father was, just half the man. And I would be a success if my children loved me half as much as I loved my father.”
Adapted from the Storycorps and Npr websites