Oh Selfless Father

Oh Selfless Father

You who paid the price

You who gave Your life

You who was barred from seeing the light

Of the next day as Your self-sacrifice

Caused You perished away in the dead of night

For You had traveled across the world, expanding Your horizons

For You had attained an education, expanding Your horizons

For You gained knowledge to chase Your aspirations, expanding Your horizons

For You accepted labor in other areas of work, expanding Your horizons

For You were discriminated against though You were intellectual peers, since to You they had closed their horizons

Someone had reached out to You, from across the horizon

So You decided to set sail, across the horizon

You were offered a position, well within Your expanded horizons

You were offered a job for the education You attained, a horizon in Your expanded horizons

As You were traveling across the sea to reach Your destined horizon

Tragedy struck, so You secured the safety of Your family, protecting Them from the dark horizons

It must’ve broken Your hearts when They learned that You could not travel with Them, as You departed into the deep depths below the horizon

Yet, it may have healed Yours, for unlike You They would get to see the sun rise again, from over across the horizon

Oh, Selfless Father, You took only to give

For if We are not selfish enough, We cannot protect Ourselves and Those We love enough to live

Oh, Selfless Father, You exchanged tickets, for this is what You did

Your Wife and You did so, to be with Your daughters; Your time to Them is what You wanted to give

Oh, Selfless Father, to spend time with Your family is what You wanted

If fate were to provide You with a means to stay afloat, more than surely You would have got on it

Like You, many Others desire to have a family of Their Own

You laid down Your life for Them, Your love being brighter than the morning sun, for within the dark horizon it had brightly shone

The depths of the waters, icy they be, freezing from glaciers of old

The depths of the waters, icy they are, but You did not allow Your heart to grow cold

Loved ones, documents, and records were left behind ensuring Your story was told

So much have You given, and Your potential contributions could We dive into and delve

So much of Our history You and Others could have changed, had not occurred the fatal incident of 1912

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Author's Notes: My words cannot do enough justice for Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche alone. I ask of you to please give this man, and many others like him from the RMS Titanic, homage by looking into any available history about them that has been made publicly available.