Father of late journalist Anthony Shadid speaks about Oklahoma-born son's book, life, career

And there are those words.

“When he wrote, it was like poetry,” Buddy Shadid said.

The retired Oklahoma City dentist sat in the comfortable den of his Nichols Hills home, surrounded by shelves of photos of a close-knit Lebanese-American family. Among them are numerous photos of his son, a New York Times correspondent and Oklahoma City native who died at 43 after a severe asthma attack Feb. 16 while on assignment in Syria.

In one photograph, a young, smiling Anthony Shadid stands in a line of cousins. They wear matching plaid pants. Shadid sports tube socks, jean shorts, a T-shirt and a broad grin. He was a little different.

They would become doctors and engineers and lawyers. Anthony always wanted to be a journalist, his father said.

Buddy Shadid, 80, thumbed through the pages of his son's memoir Wednesday, a day after its release.

The book recounts the tale of an ancient family estate in Lebanon built before the family fled to America. For almost three years, Anthony Shadid worked to restore the palatial home. Along the way, he also toiled to tell the story of the lives that passed through its doors and documented 100 years of his family's history in Oklahoma and Lebanon.

Buddy Shadid is trying to get through the book, but is so overcome with emotion when he looks at his son's words that he can read only a few pages at once.

They talked about the book often. “He wanted to please me and he would frame it in a way I would like,” he said.

“Every time I read a line, it brings back a memory.”