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Not Heidi

(1,496 posts)
Tue Sep 6, 2022, 04:16 PM Sep 2022

Today would be my father's 83 birthday. (Not a happy post. Trigger alert.) [View all]

Dennis died at 69, on Jan. 10, 2008, when he crashed his ultralight in the hills of Riverside Co., CA. We - my sisters and I - believe he took his life intentionally. I believe he was thinking of my sisters and me as he prepared to die. When I was 23, as I served my first stint in a psychiatric hospital, he told me he felt desperately guilty at the turn our lives took when he left our mother with three little girls after seven years of marriage. Our mother, Jeannie, took her life at age 33, on Dec. 10, 1974, when I was 11.

Although I've forgiven him, I don't have nor do I need any warm and fuzzy memories of my father. My mother gets a pass, as she was tormented by things beyond her control. She spent time in a mental hospital, three separate stays. She was as desperately hurt as anyone I've known, including myself. I've had to forgive a few people besides my father. She was the easiest to forgive.

Neither of my parents had any business having children. I've always believed that neither of them wanted children, but that they had them because that's what you did in the '50s & early '60s.* You married and had children. It was practically law.

I have my sisters. They are my life. Never were any sisters closer.

* If she'd been capable, my mother would've dug the late '60s. By '74, she just couldn't stand it anymore.

TL;DR: tormented, hurtful parents, both dead by suicide - a remembrance

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
I'm very sorry... hlthe2b Sep 2022 #1
hlthe2b Not Heidi Sep 2022 #4
Not at all... hlthe2b Sep 2022 #7
Thank you Not Heidi Sep 2022 #8
..... Trailrider1951 Sep 2022 #2
thank you, Trailrider Not Heidi Sep 2022 #5
... SheltieLover Sep 2022 #3
thank you, SheltieLover Not Heidi Sep 2022 #6
🌸 🌸 🌸 Donkees Sep 2022 #9
this is a beautiful gift, Donkees Not Heidi Sep 2022 #10
I'm so sorry. I can't imagine the pain you and your sisters went through, highplainsdem Sep 2022 #11
I'm overwhelmed with thanks Not Heidi Sep 2022 #12
I'm very sorry nt XanaDUer2 Sep 2022 #13
Thank you, xanaDUer Not Heidi Sep 2022 #14
Gracias XanaDUer2 Sep 2022 #15
Kick nt XanaDUer2 Sep 2022 #16
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