CHICAGO — Giving pain a purpose.
That’s what Chicago father Corneal Westbrooks is trying to do after his teenage son was shot to death on the streets of Chicago nearly three years ago. And it’s why Westbrooks has written a children’s book titled after his late son, “Caleb the Great: Touchdown in New Orleans.”
The book, with illustrations by Janine Carrington, is available for purchase on Amazon.
Corneal, who works in pharmaceutical sales and teaches college courses at his alma mater, Dominican University, will appear at the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club on West Monroe Street for the sixth annual Black Child Book Fair on Friday, Jan. 31. Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools kids are expected to be in attendance.
This is how, in spite of his tremendous loss, Corneal Westbrooks shares the memory of his own son and spreads love and hope to the community.
Unimaginable tragedy
There are very few things in life — if any — that produce more grief, sadness, anger and longing than for a parent to lose a child. Corneal Westbrooks is now a member of a club he never wanted to join after losing his son Caleb at the age of 15.
So in the aftermath of his son being shot to death, Corneal decided to write a children’s book based on his and his son’s own experiences.
As a single father, Corneal moved he and Caleb to New Orleans for a job, then they moved back to Chicago several years ago. Father and son shared a love of sport and the “Madden” football video games. Caleb loved playing football, too, and the friendships he would form.
His dad says his son was pretty good, too, even though Corneal had wanted him to play the sport another Chicago legend was famous for.
“Me being from Chicago, being a Chicago guy, raised during the Jordan era, I wanted my son to play basketball,” Corneal said. “I wanted my son to ‘be like Mike,’ because at 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds, I could never ‘be like Mike.’
“He had other ideas, and he loved football. I think what he loved most about football was the camaraderie. I think he loved being a part of a team.”
After moving back to Chicago, Caleb pursued his passion of playing with the pigskin.
“I was convinced that if I was a good person, and I raised my son to be a good person, that good things would follow,” Corneal said.
Shot after school
But try as father might to keep his son out of harm’s way, it found its way to him one day in January 2022 after Caleb had gotten out of school early from Rauner College Prep in the city’s West Town neighborhood.
While walking to catch a bus from school during the early afternoon of Jan. 18, 2022, Caleb was shot in the 800 block of North Greenview Avenue. He later died from his injuries at the hospital.
“As I’ve been told, he got out of school early that day. They were testing. Him and some friends were on their way to Wendy’s to get food,” Corneal recalled. “They were approached by a young man who went to a neighboring school. The young man threatened to rob them.
“Caleb kind of stood up to him. In those instances, I guess most people would be afraid, but Caleb has never been afraid. He’s always been fearless, and in that moment he stood up to this bully. But unfortunately, a gun was produced, and he shot Caleb three times.”
As he and others in his family tried to work their way through the heartbreak, it occurred to Corneal that he needed to take the lead when it came to healing — or trying to, anyway — the emotional wounds.
“I was angry at first. It was difficult to be angry,” Corneal said. “I didn’t realize how much of a toll that was actually having on me and those around me.
“And because I’d looked at my family — my mom, my brother — and the impact that it had on them, I had to in some ways step up and be a leader, and focus more on the legacy he left behind versus how his life ended.”
‘Didn’t want to write that ending’
All this time later, Corneal has kept his son’s bedroom the same as it was the day he died. He proudly talks about how Caleb played chess and how he still has Caleb’s traveling chess set.
And in writing the children’s book, Corneal wants to impart to Caleb’s much younger cousin, 4-year-old Katherine, and the entire world just who Caleb was and how father and son lived — not how Caleb died.
“Caleb the Great: Touchdown in New Orleans” follows a father and son as they experience their new life in the “Big Easy” and how learning the game of football translated into a young man’s personal growth on the field and off.
Corneal’s mantra to his son was simply this: Don’t be good. Be great.
And to other young men out there, Corneal has a message.
“Don’t be afraid to dream,” he says. “This world is so much more than the neighborhood that you grew up in.”
There’s one last thing: In the book’s happily-ever-after ending, Caleb and his teammates on the Broncos go undefeated with a record of 14-0.
It’s a fitting way to remember Caleb’s life.
“The way his life ended, I didn’t want to write that ending,” Corneal says.
