His name is Seraphin Philippe. A proud Haitian. Met my mom while she was down in Haiti building schools on a 3rd world aid project. My dad is one of the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. The term work-a-holic doesn’t even come close to what he is. He’s currently 68 years old and thinks retirement is the most absurd idea ever. I once suggested he retire and I thought he was going to smack me into my next lifetime.

My dad and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. Our debates on religion were heated. When I found too much hypocrisy in the church to attend it with him anymore it caused the type of dent in our relationship that made me wonder if we’d ever be close again. Thankfully we agreed to disagree and kept it moving.

This past weekend Seraphin decided to fly from Montreal to visit me in Los Angeles for my birthday (July 10th). I’d been up to visit him a handful of times but this was the first time he’d come to visit me since I moved to LA 5 years ago. Better late than never huh?

The picture just above in this post was taken on Venice Beach where we biked along the boardwalk. Seraphin hadn’t been on a bike in 40 years. Aside from his bike chain slipping off at one point he got right back in the groove. Good times. Definitely glad he came to visit.