Yesterday was Father's Day and it's always kind of a sad day for me since my dad passed in May of 2003. But even having loss my father, I feel very blessed having heard the beautiful story behind the book Journal for Jordan. I had the blessed opportunity to know my father for 34 years, to be able care for him as he fought cancer and eulogize him the day he was laid to rest.
The book, A Journal For Jordan is a "love letter" from a father to his son whom he had only met once.
In 2005, First Sgt. Charles Monroe King had been deployed to Iraq and kept a journal for his son in case he did not return from Iraq. The journal was gifted to him by his fiancee, Dana Canedy, senior editor at the New York Times. In 2001, she shared the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the paper’s series "How Race Is Lived in America". On October 14, 2006 a roadside bomb detonated under Sgt. King's Humvee. He was killed just one month away from completing his tour of duty. His son Jordan was seven months old.
Sgt. King was able to leave behind the journal filled with love and fatherly counsel on everything from, how to shave, how to treat a woman with respect, about love, how to choose a wife, how to deal with racism, being humble , working hard, the power of prayer, favorite bible verses and his love for military service and just every word of wisdom a father should bestow upon his son.
Canedy takes the pages of Sgt. King's journal for his son and weaves them together with her own words to create a tragic yet beautiful family love story. And I was thrilled to find that the book will be made to film starring Denzel Washington.
Dana Canedy's Appearance on Oprah discussing the book
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