Shari Belafonte recently opened up about the final moments her iconic father, Harry Belafonte, shared with her before his death.
The prolific singer, actor and civil rights advocate died last year due to congestive heart failure. Shari revealed that during his last meeting, he was in a good mood and laughed warmly.
“I know exactly what I told him,” Shari, 69, said. People. He morning show The actress remembers seeing Harry, who was 96 years old at the time of his death, sitting comfortably in his wheelchair with his wife, Pamela Frank, by his side.
“He said, ‘Pam.’ She said, ‘What’s up, baby?’ He said, “Sit me up straight.” Then she walked over to start sitting him down. And she has a caretaker, so the caretaker said, ‘I’ll get it, Mr. B.’ ”
“So they kept trying to prop it up. He continued, ‘Higher, higher, higher,’ until the point where he was all the way up. He was leaning. And he said, ‘Louder.’ I told him, ‘Harry, if you were taller, you’d be sucking on your own,'” Shari told the outlet. “And he said, ‘What did you say?’ And we started laughing and that was it.”
“So I said, ‘I love you, Dad.’ And then I left and that was the last conversation we had,” Shari recalled.
Shari and Harry Belafonte circa 1985. (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
At 96, Harry Belafonte’s daughter said she has no regrets
Shari firmly believes her famous father never looked back.
“I think he lived his life to the bitter end. She was 96 years old. “She didn’t regret anything,” he added about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member. “So I think that’s a lesson most people need to learn: be true to yourself and come out kicking and screaming, or happy. And do what is honest to you.”
Shari Belafonte detailed that her relationship with her father became much stronger later in her life. She remembered calling him by his name much more often than by “dad.”
“He wasn’t the warm and fuzzy father figure portrayed on early TV shows,” Shari admitted of her iconic father. “But then, who was he really? My parents separated when my mother was pregnant with me, so I didn’t grow up with him in our house. My grandmother and mother raised me and they talked about ‘Harry’: ‘Harry will be coming to pick up Shari any minute.’ So 90% of the time I refer to him as ‘Harry,’” she recalled. “Over the years, several times he said to me, ‘Why don’t you call me ‘dad’?” I say, ‘Well, okay, I’ll try harder to achieve it!’ “
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn