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Surrounded by death during the AIDS crisis, Larry Bennett wanted to focus on something happier and more positive, namely his desire to be a Big Brother and care for children. After being matched with a young boy, it turned out to be a dream come true for both Larry and his Little Brother, Andre. Larry recalls:
So the first time I picked Andre up, we went out to Golden Gate Park and I had taken a bag of bread and thought, "Well, how fun to go out to the park and feed the ducks." And that's what we did.
There were a couple of instances I remember from the first year, one of them we had gone out to the beach or something, some place like that and he said to me, "You know, I really wish you were my real father."
Well of course that just melted me to nothing.
After Andre was almost adopted by his new step-father -- the marriage to Andre's mother resulted in a divorce -- Larry wanted to be the one to officially adopt Andre and finally be the father he always wanted to be:
I said to Andre, "What would you think of me adopting you officially?"
And he said, "Yes, I would really like that to happen."
His mother was in favor of going forward with the adoption because she knew that I had been a constant in his life, how much I loved and cared about him and I think that she wanted to ensure his future and knew that by our adoption this would really solidify and cement our relationship.
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