Mariah Carey Remembers Her Late Dad on His Birthday: 'Sunflowers for Alfred Roy'

The singer, 54, lost her father Alfred Roy Carey to cancer in 2002

Mariah Carey is paying tribute to her late father.

The singer, 54, posted a photo on Instagram, Monday of her holding a sunflower as she marked her late father Alfred Roy Carey’s birthday. He died aged 72 in 2002.

“Sunflowers for Alfred Roy…Remembering my Father on his birthday today… ❤️🌻” Carey wrote in the caption.

In her Instagram Story, the “Emotions” singer smiled as she held a sunflower close to her chest. Carey also included a sunflower reference when she paid tribute to her dad in a June Instagram post for Father's Day.

Related: Mariah Carey Dazzles in Sparkling, Skin-Baring Gown and Diamonds During Glam Night Out

“Happy Father’s Day to all! Remembering my Father, the late Alfred Roy Carey “Shining like a sunflower up in the sky” 🌻🙏🏾❤️,” Carey captioned a photo of her father in a military uniform as a young man.

In the year following her father's death, Carey wrote and released the song "Sunflowers for Alfred Roy."

Related: Mariah Carey Reacts to Her Twins Almost Being Teenagers: 'Don't Rush All of Our Lives' (Exclusive)

To mark her dad's birthday last October, Carey posted a photo of her sitting in a red Porsche Speedster which she had restored in his honor.

“Happy Birthday to you my Father Alfred Roy Carey,” the singer wrote in her caption. “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🌻👐🏾❤️.”

Elsewhere in the carousel post, Carey’s 12-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan — whom she shares with ex-husband Nick Cannon — were seen sitting solo behind the wheel of the Porsche. A final snap showed Carey smiling in the car.

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Carey was just three when her father, a black aeronautical engineer from Venezuela, separated from her Irish-American mother, Patricia, an aspiring opera star from Indiana. "They went through some very hard times before I was born,” Carey told PEOPLE in 1993. “There was always this tension. They just fought all the time.”

The Carey family — Mariah has a brother Morgan and sister Alison — disintegrated when Alfred and Patricia divorced in 1972. “My father and I had a good relationship for a minute there, right after the divorce,” she added. “Everybody wishes they had the Brady Bunch family, but it’s not reality.”

The "Hero" singer also spoke about her “complicated” relationship with her mom in her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

"To be honest, I don't know if my mother ever wanted to get married and have children so young. I could understand her wanting to create a safety net, a new family of her own, and to continue blazing trails, leaving her backward home and family behind,″ she wrote in the book.

″Watching their dreams go up in flames burned a cautionary tale into my mind,″ Carey added.

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