Caring for her father, the nation's oldest veteran, is a full-time job for Vanessa Brooks.
FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2019 file photo, World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks sports a lipstick kiss on his cheek, planted by a member of the singing group Victory Belles, as he celebrates his 110th birthday at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. She patted the shaving cream carefully on his cheeks and along his jaw before sliding the razor across his face to make a clean strip.
The centenarian Brooks is still mentally sharp — he can tell decades-old stories of his childhood in Louisiana and rural Mississippi, of being drafted to join WWII. But his body is weak. Brooks’ hearing is becoming more limited, he has lost his sight in one eye, and his vision is fading in the other. Several hospitalizations in the past year have been taxing physically and emotionally.
A concerned friend set up a GoFundMe page to help support Vanessa and her dad while she cares for him at home. She found herself increasingly exhausted and having to take more and more time off work to meet her dad’s needs. Lawrence Brooks, who was in the mostly-Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment, never had a combat job, a legacy of racist policies that relegated many Black soldiers to service-oriented jobs in the then-segregated U.S. Army. Brooks was a caretaker for three white officers in Australia and was discharged in August 1945 as a private first class. When he left the service, he worked as a forklift driver before retiring in his 60s.
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