It was tough...it was, you know, he was a little brother...
kinda like a kid to me. I mean I didn't have any of my own, but
we would spend a lot of time together and loved him
and it was a shock to find out that he had
he had been killed.
I'm Corben Tyson, this is my wife Sara.
We've got three kids.
This is Max...Owen...
and Audrey, who thinks she's Princess Elsa.
I'm on a journey to find out what it means
to be a good dad.
My friend Ron is a humble guy that you can always count on.
Even though he's never had kids he's taught me a lot
about what it means to be a dad.
During college he signed up to be a Big Brother
for the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.
He became a big brother and mentor for a kid named Bachi.
I'd always wanted to be a big brother
After I graduated from college, um, got involved with the program.
Ron spent afternoons and evenings hanging out with Bachi.
in hope that by being a positive mentor in his life that it would make a difference.
On March 10th of 1995...
I was back at law school taking a part of the BAR examination and
I had just left to come back to Rockford
and it was really before anybody had cell phones, like we did now,
and Laura, my wife, had just
gotten the information that Bachi was murdered.
The story is that he was trying to get out of a gang
and they didn't want him out.
It was tough, it was
you know, he was a little brother
kinda like a kid to me. I mean, I didn't have any of my own but
we'd spend a lot of time together and loved him
and it was a shock to find out that he had
he had been killed.
Ron told me that Bachi's death turned his world upsidedown.
He felt like he had failed as a mentor and wished that he could have done something
to prevent his death.
Along with Bachi, Ron developed a relationship with Bachi's little brother Miquon.
Miquon is nine years younger than Bachi
and Ron felt like he needed to do something to help prevent history from
repeating itself.
And so at the funeral,
I reconnected with Miquon and talked with with their mother Beverly
to see if it would be okay if I could go ahead and
have that same type of big brother relationship
with Miquon as I had with Bachi.
I mean, I had a good mom, she kept me out of trouble, but Ron kept me grounded.
Like, I had two different lifestyles I was living
like, I had my family I was around, that I was, you know
running the streets and when I came around, he got me away from everything.
That was my comfort zone where I was able to relax, you know, just be me.
There were a few occasions where he would call me, you know,
midnight. Upset about something. I'd just go pick him up wherever he was.
You know, we'd find a place to sit down have a cuppa coffee grab some
grab some food and just talk about it.
I just wanted to kinda
be there and know that I was gonna be a constant in his life.
That I wasn't gonna be somebody that was here today and gone tomorrow
That if he needed something he knows that he can call me
and I'll show up.
I had Ron. I had, that was my father figure, you know, he's my brother but he was more like a father.
He taught me every life lesson that I needed to know.
I mean...
I learned everything from him.
I get a lot of advice from him.
You know, I don't listen to all of it sometimes, I already have my mind made up
but it's still good to run it across him.
He's not gonna offend me, he's not gonna upset me if he tells me that I'm full of it.
A lot of times I am.
I mean, he's comfortable around everybody
he cracks his jokes...and my family they're just used to Ron being Ron, you know, so,
everybody that I'm close with, looks at Ron as family.
Oh, I'm very proud of Miquon
He makes me nuts sometimes, but he's an exceptional young man. To see him
in his relationship with his wife Mimi and to see him be a dad to his daughters
Kira and Kiana
yeah it's fun to watch.
I guess, it did really hit both me and Laura when he and Mimi got married
and they were introducing family and we had no clue this was coming
but on Miquon's side of the family, right after they introduced his mom
they introduced me and Laura
...and...
...very touching.
Over the years Miquon has become a competitive bodybuilder.
He trains five to six days a week and eats seven meals a day.
He's no stranger to discipline and perseverance.
These are two words that I think are important to put into practice
when it comes to being a good dad
Everybody lift weights, but
everybody can't be a body builder.
I got a word I go by, which is, persevere.
I use that with everything, like,
just have the will power to keep going, never give up.
My six-year-old reminds me of me.
She's real quiet when you first meet her,
but once you get to know her she's just super outgoing.
And my 1-year-old, she's the jokester already at one.
She goes to anybody.
We'll be in a grocery store and she'll just hold her hands up to the cashier or something.
Me, I'm hopefully setting a good foundation for them
You're gonna make mistakes you just gotta be able to
move along.
There's a learning process being a dad. I'm still learning.
you know, hehehe
They teach me something new everyday.
To me a life well-lived is
to be there for your loved ones, to be a good friend, to be a good husband
to be a good son.
You know that you got a good group of friends that
are there for you and you're there for them.
We get together now and again and
he'll come over and hang out or
we'll go somewhere and have dinner or lunch together.
I see how he interacts with his wife and with his kids and
and I look back on that and I think that he's had it in there all along
Maybe I helped him find it
but I truly think he's always had it.
Miquon talked to me a lot about perseverance
what it means to be there for people even when you don't feel like it.
During the last several months, I've interviewed tons of dads.
I've learned a lot.
You see, everybody wants to be a better person,
a better dad, and everybody wants to be happy.
But how many of us are willing to put in the hard work
to become what we wanna be.
I want things now and most of the time I'm not willing to put in the hard work.
If there's one thing I've learned during this series,
it's that good dads commit to and lot of hard work
and perseverance.
So what does the word persevere mean to you?
And what hard work are we doing to become better dads?
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