Forgiving a Father Who Left

11-02-2022 • arclein

Then something happened which had a devastating effect on me and my brothers and sisters. My father had an affair and abandoned our family very suddenly to be with this other woman. He just up and left my mother with six children. Mom said, "Well, what am I supposed to do with your children?" He said, "You'll survive," and then walked out the door. I watched as my mom, who had never touched a drop of alcohol, began to drink heavily. I watched as she spent the evenings sitting on the basement steps, weeping. Feeling abandoned, and bereft of any fatherly guidance, my brothers and sisters and I all began to make bad choices; we got into drugs and alcohol and promiscuous sex and were basically consumed by despair.