Devon Charles Smith, a messenger at Texaco Caribbean Inc. in New Kingston, poses with his two-year-old son Devon Jnr.
"IT'S VERY important for the father to play a role like the mother," says Devon Charles Smith, 43, a messenger at Texaco Caribbean Inc.
He had his son in his arms during the Registrar General's Department's (RGD) "Open Day for Fathers" on Wednesday.
With a smile, Smith made his two-year-old son comfortable, and continued filling out the application form that would declare him the father of the child.
"Suppose I'm applying for a visa," he said, looking up, "I want to take him with me and he will need this for other important things."
Smith said he grew up without knowing his father. "I have no father. He never took care of me," he said, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "It was just mi mother and mi granny. Mi mother leave mi with her when I was three and she took care of me until I was 17."
He is determined that his children should know him as their father and has gone through the RGD process with his other children, Wayne, 21, and Vivienne, 15.
Single-parent
In the case of his daughter, Smith said he played the role of a single-parent for 13 years until she could join her mother in the United States.
"I cook, wash, do everything for her. I comb her hair too -- in one (plait) for her hair did tall -- and I take her to school and go back for her in the evening," he said.
Raising Vivienne for the first few months was hard, he said.
"She is a girl and I'm a man and you don't know how to deal with a girl like how a woman would do it. To tell you de truth, I did feel down but after ah start getting use to it, everything was alright."
He said he worked nights so he could stay home with her in the days. At nights, he said, he made sure she was left with someone. Looking back, he said he doesn't regret a moment of the hardship experienced in bringing her up.
"I like children. If I could afford it, I would have more," he said, with a smile. "I raise my child from she was two until she was 15 years. Me alone raise her until she went to her mother. I feel proud of it."
