WHEN Jermaine Blissett’s father died in March of this year, there were things left unsaid. Not because there had been bitterness or estrangement between them. Simply because life, with all its moving parts, distractions and assumptions, convinces us there will be more time.

For years, he thought about the spaces in their relationship; the conversations never had, questions never asked. His father, celebrated geologist and University of the West Indies lecturer Dr Donovan Blissett, was a man admired by many. He was brilliant, grounded and effortlessly able to connect with everyone, whether they were his fellow academics or strangers he encountered along the road.

At home, however, younger Blissett now reflects, brilliance looked different.

“My father was amazing,” said Blissett, who serves as assistant vice president for payments at First Global Bank (FGB). “But our relationship wasn’t what people might have imagined.”

His parents were young adults when he was born. Circumstances and limited resources meant much of his childhood was spent with his grandmother. He visited his father on weekends, shared moments with and laughed with him, but there wasn’t the daily closeness many children take for granted.

“I don’t want to call him distant,” he shared. “I think they just didn’t have the capacity. They were young. Everybody was trying to figure life out.”

Yet, memory has a way of preserving what matters.

He remembers one trip. He was just a boy. His father had taken him along on fieldwork and it felt like an adventure. They explored rocks and fossils and somewhere between curiosity and discovery, he watched his father’s eyes come alive.

Dr Blissett was passionate about geology.

“He would find something in a rock and explain it to us,” he recalled. “At the time, I probably didn’t fully understand what he was saying. But I remember the passion.”

Years later, that passion remains one of the things he cherishes most.

Outside of his work accomplishments, Jermaine remembers his father’s humility the most. He never wore intellect as a badge and never needed people to know how truly brilliant he was.

“He kept it one hundred with everybody,” he laughed. “You could talk to him on the street, and you wouldn’t feel less than. He could talk to anybody.”

That understanding has showed him that greatness does not require arrogance.

“You don’t have to walk over people to get where you need to go,” Blissett said. “You don’t need to make others feel small. You can be brilliant and still be humble.”

Ironically, becoming a father himself brought into focus the things he understood least about his own upbringing. He became a dad in his late 20s, deliberately waiting until he felt ready. Today, he says raising his children with his wife Georgette has become a blessing.

Siblings Akilah and Jermaine Blissett flank their father, the late Dr Donovan Blissett, whose quiet humility, intellectual curiosity and gift for connecting with others continue to influence generations.

“My wife is excellent in helping me manage. We fill each other’s gaps and her support is amazing. Parenting is an unscripted classroom, every day teaches something new,” he shared.

Patience, perhaps, is required most of all. He laughs when he remembers his younger self.

“I had no patience,” he admitted. “Fatherhood gave me that.” More than patience, fatherhood gave him purpose.

“There wasn’t any guidance back then,” he said. “I just existed. I woke up, went to work, came home and repeated it.” Then children arrived.

“They gave me a reason. Why do I go to work? Why do I put up with stress? They gave me purpose.”

Today, that sense of purpose extends beyond home and into his work at FGB, a member of the GraceKennedy Financial Group (GKFG).

For Blissett, leadership in corporate is less about authority and more about stewardship. The same patience and understanding he has cultivated as a father have become central to his approach to his FGB colleagues, customers, and the teams that depend on him.

Whether leading direct reports or helping customers navigate payment decisions via their credit or debit cards, he believes being calm matters. Panic, he said, rarely inspires confidence.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to listen and to be compassionate,” he said. “Not everything is about the immediate problem. You have to understand what people are bringing with them.”

It is a philosophy shaped as much by his journey in fatherhood as by professional experience.

For Blissett, work is ultimately about something larger than transactions or titles. It is about helping people, providing stability and leaving those around him better than he found them.

In many ways, that is the same legacy he hopes to leave his children. He wants his children to feel comfortable coming to him, not afraid. That desire stems from understanding what absence feels like, even when love exists.

His father’s death is something he admits he still has not fully processed. Yet the loss has sharpened a singular truth: there will come a day when he, too, is no longer here. When that day comes, he hopes his children will never wonder whether they were loved.

Like so many fathers, he admits that men often need more than they let on — more conversations, more reassuring words.

Asked what he hopes his children remember most about him; his answer comes without hesitation. “I want them to be happy.”