Letters To My Father: The Gifts

The life of O. Raye Adkins was irrevocably altered on the evening of July 17, 1944 — four months before her birth. That tragic night took the life of her father, Raphel Orval Beason, and 320 men in the Port Chicago Naval Munitions base explosion, the largest stateside military disaster of WWII. This decisive event set Raye on a lifelong journey marked initially by loss and suffering, and later by inconceivable gifts and blessings. Forced to reveal hidden emotions and the unknown circumstances of her father’s death, she transcends pain and loss to emerge with a renewed sense of self. This book chronicles that process of discovery through a series of letters Raye writes to the namesake she never knew, but who, nevertheless, was the principal force in her life. Each letter, and the journey behind it, takes the reader inside the sorrow and mind of a confused little girl who has lost her daddy, but doesn’t understand how or why, and isn’t encouraged to ask.