Your kindness was not for show – Zanetor on father, JJ Rawlings

Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings has said that the universal tributes of confession that her father, Jerry Rawlings, was a kind and loving person were not merely to please anybody.

She stated that he was an inherently kind person whose arms of thoughtfulness extended to many.

“I never could fathom how you managed to have such a personal relationship with so many people from so many walks of life and still have room for more! Each person had a personal story to tell of how you impacted their lives,” she said.

She said that following his death, many people have testified of his kindness to them and how, for many, their lives were transformed after they encountered him. This, she added, is only evidence of what a selfless man he was, never intending to please anyone with all that he did.

“Sometimes, you would see some elderly women who were walking and would stop to pick them up and drop them at their destination. You just had a big heart, and it was not for show! You did so many acts of kindness on the quiet!” she said.

Referring to her late father as her “closest friend and confidante,” she spoke of how much she misses “our little private jokes,” and the glance that said, “I know what you’re thinking.”

The first daughter and child of the late former president said this in a tribute she read on her and her other siblings’ behalf for their father, during the funeral service at the Black Star Square in Accra.

Dr. Zanetor Rawlings is also the Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle constituency and is the only child of her late father who has stepped into his political shoes.

President Jerry John Rawlings died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on Thursday, November 12, 2020, after a short illness. He is survived by a wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, and four children.