Abby Connolly
If you’re a parent, it can be hard to imagine one day becoming totally estranged from your kids. But in some family scenarios, it happens, and it can be devastating.
One man has been estranged from his kids for years and is feeling incredibly guilty after hanging up a call that seemed to be from one of his daughters.
He got married when he was quite young and had three children with his ex-wife. When their oldest child was 10, he and his wife split because she had been cheating on him. However, at the time, they both decided to keep the real reason behind their divorce secret from their children.
Looking back on his divorce now, he wishes he had told his kids what happened because once he and his wife split, his kids began to resent him, assuming the split was his fault. At one point, the only person they’d talk to who had anything to do with him was his mother.
“As they got older, my relationship with them got worse and worse,” he explained.
“By the time my youngest was 17, they had mostly stopped talking to me other than to degrade me. I wanted to tell the kids [the truth] at one point or another, but my ex threatened to make life very difficult for me and my mother if I did, and she was in a position where she really could have.”
As the years went by, his disconnect from his children put him in a very dark and low place. He even attempted to take his life. Thankfully, his boss and a longtime friend offered him a job across the country. He figured that since his kids wanted nothing to do with him, it was as if he had nothing to lose, so he made the move for a fresh start.
Ten months after his move, he met the woman who is his current wife, and they have two kids together.
“She helped pull me out of [a] severe depression and put me back together again,” he said.
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