Proud Of You, Mom

I was driving with my mother the other day. I was giving her a ride to see my son compete in a Rubik’s cube competition. And somehow we ended up on the topic of my father. We don’t discuss him much anymore. He’s been dead for over 20 years now, and when he was alive, my mother, more or less, wished he was dead. 

And I know that sounds harsh, but he walked out on my mother for another woman. He took all the money from their savings accounts, maxed out their credit cards, refused to pay child support, all of it to pay for his addiction to opioids.

We mentioned how he dragged her through a very long and painful divorce, and she said “just last week I finally shredded the boxes of court documents from the divorce. It was a mess of leans and loans he took out in our name. It’s been 30 years since he left. But I was afraid to get rid of them.” 

“Afraid what?” I asked.

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