Mariah Carey paid a poignant tribute to her late father Alfred Roy Carey on Monday as she marked what would have been his 94th birthday.
The 53-year-old music sensation — who announced Christmas concert dates earlier this month — shared a photo of herself on Instagram with a heartfelt caption in honor of her father.
In the snap she smiled softly with a single sunflower in hand as she gazed out of the frame.
‘Sunflowers for Alfred Roy.. Remembering my Father on his birthday today,’ she wrote under the snapshot.
Mariah looked beautiful with her sandy blonde curls scooped up, while wearing a black sequinned top.
In her thoughts: Mariah Carey paid a poignant tribute to her late father Alfred Roy Carey on Monday as she marked what would have been his 94th birthday
Her words: ‘Sunflowers for Alfred Roy.. Remembering my Father on his birthday today,’ she wrote under the snapshot
Her father passed away 21 years ago on July 4, 2002 at the age of 72 after a cancer battle.
‘My father craved discipline, culture, and freedom,’ Carey wrote in her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
The songstress described her father’s decision to join the military as ‘a logical choice for a man who’d had no say over the time or skin into which he was born.’
In the book, she reminisced on his ‘austere quality’ and shared that his home was ‘part military barracks, part Shaolin monastery.’
‘There was no room for extravagance or waste of any kind in his home,’ she recalled. ‘He considered the act of snacking frivolous. If I was hungry while waiting for dinner, he would give me one Ritz cracker. One.’
Roy Carey was an aeronautical engineer and was of African-American and Venezuelan descent.
He wed Mariah’s mother Patricia in 1960, but their marriage, plagued by racism, ended in divorce in 1973.
Patricia, a white woman, was disowned by her parents for marrying a Black man and racial tension followed them in Huntington, New York, where they lived.
In memoriam: Mariah posted a birthday tribute to her father on Instagram after restoring his vintage sports car last year
Tribute: The Grammy-winning superstar glowed from behind the wheel as she shared a series of photos that showed off the stunning restoration of her father’s red speedster
Relationship: After Mariah’s parents divorced when she was three-years-old she only saw her father on Sundays
Mariah posted a birthday tribute to her father on Instagram after restoring his vintage sports car last year.
Sharing photos of her and her children — fraternal twins Moroccan and Monroe, 12 — inside the refurbished vehicle, she added a warm caption.
‘Happy Birthday to you my father Alfred Roy Carey,’ wrote the Hero singer. ‘The car you never got to finish is lovingly restored, complete with your spirit and my children. Sorry I never told you all I wanted to say.’
The last line is a lyric to her 1995 single One Sweet Day, performed with Boyz II Men.