The Event That Inspired White Man's Disease

local_couple_takes_it_one_chapter_at_a_time_-_delaware_bride_-_fall_winter_2015_-_delaware.pdf
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The story in White Man's Disease originated over 30 years ago, but it was a recent event that inspired me to write it. It was my daughter Kina's wedding in December 2014. Delaware Today mag did an article about the wedding. Here is a brief excerpt from that article pertinent to White Man's Disease (the full article is available at the link):
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The newlyweds shared their first dance to Anthony Hamilton’s “Her Heart,” followed by a special father-daughter dance to Beyonce’s “Daddy.” One of the most memorable moments, along with 11-year-old Kalen’s best-man speech, was shared with Thornton’s father, Paul. Before the wedding ceremony, she gave him a gift—a small pocket square with a powerful inscription: “Daddy, of all the walks we have taken together, this is one of my favorites.”

It was a tribute to a time when she was 6 years old and her dad was unable to see, hear or walk after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor. Using a cane, he would take Kina’s hand while she led him through the streets of New York, where he lived, slowly teaching him how to walk again.
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Little did Thornton know that her father’s reception speech included the same memory. “It was just so perfect,” Paul Thornton says. “When she gave [the pocket square] to me, I looked at it, and I got a little misty eyed because it was so touching. But I was particularly moved because it was so much in key with what I was going to share in my own speech.”