This is a story of a little boy who was abandoned at his birth at just six months old, passed from home to home, and was lost emotionally. However, the tables turned when his father remarried. A new woman? Nah, an angel in disguise!
My “mother story” is a tale of 2 mothers. My birth mother was a very irresponsible woman who deserted the family when I was 6 months old. She literally left us 3 boys in her apartment and left town.
My father was in the military at the time and was away, but fortunately, my grandmother “happened” to come visit and found us alone, crying and hungry. My grandmother gathered us kids and took us home to care for us.
We were subsequently passed from family to family for over 3 years while my Dad was fighting in Korea. After Dad returned, he married an ANGEL who took us and attempted to raise us as her own. It turned out to be a massive undertaking for her because by now, we boys were “problem” kids for her.
We were emotionally damaged, as well as confused and very unruly. We were terrible kids and very cruel to her. But she continued to care for us and love us even though we were hellions. I left home at age 17 to join the Marines.
While at home with her, we never connected, but after I grew up, we connected!
And thank God I did! I apologized profusely over and over, which she always said was not necessary. In my eyes, she had a halo over her head for the rest of her life.
I have known a handful of saintly and noble women in my life, but she is solidly at the top of my list. Today, I feel I am a very resolved man, but one thing still causes me sadness from time to time, and that is how I hurt the woman who tried so hard to love and care for me, and I didn’t see it.
Thanks, Mom, for taking this troublesome, damaged, and confused young boy and allowing me to grow into the man I am today.
As for my birthmother, I never saw or heard from her till I was 16 years old. We had a 15-minute talk, and she went again.