PART 4: THE TRUE FATHER
The dean stepped forward once more, holding a dark leather folder that had not been listed on the official program.
“By unanimous vote of the board and through an official legal motion filed by these three graduates,” the dean announced, “we present a special honor.”
Maya, Elise, and Nora gestured for me to come up onto the stage, the crowd bursting into a deafening standing ovation.
I walked up the wooden steps with tears streaming down my face, my bad knee forgotten in the tide of overwhelming emotion.
Nora handed me the leather folder, which held an official adult adoption certificate signed by all three of my girls.
“We don’t want to carry our old name anymore, Dad,” Elise whispered, throwing her arms around my neck as her sisters joined in a tight embrace.
“You gave us your whole life,” Maya murmured into my shoulder. “The least we can do is take your name forever.”
As I held my three daughters tightly under the bright stage lights, the years of quiet sacrifice and exhaustion vanished completely.
I had entered that hardware store apartment twenty-two years ago as a terrified young man with $312 to his name, but standing on that stage, I was the richest father in the world.
