Tag Archives: parents divorced

My P.O.W. Dad – Father Finally Found

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“If we know where we came from, we may better know where to go. If we know who we came from, we may better understand who we are.”

—Anonymous

Today’s story is contributed by David Grieme.

There was something missing growing up, in childhood, in adolescence, as a man. I was missing a dad.

Superman and his brother

Superman (aka David) in Webster Groves, Missouri about 1962 with his brother Greg

Coaches. Professors. Fathers of close friends. There were many important men in my life, but no one really filled the gap my biological father left.

Dad left when I was ten, after my parents divorced. But really, he was “absent” all along. At home, detached and closed. My five siblings and I seemed invisible, an inconvenience. When asked about family history, our grandparents particularly, Dad refused to answer. We were forbidden, in fact, from asking.

And then Arnold “Arne” Böcker entered my life — the father of my wife. READ MORE 

Ordinary Fathers

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“The abandoned infant’s cry is rage, not fear.”

—Robert Anton Wilson

Today’s story is by Pam Houghton.

For many years, I was a little sad and wistful whenever Father’s Day rolled around because inevitably, there was some article in the newspaper that celebrated a bunch of dads doing ordinary things for their families every day.

Pam and her dad, 1992

Pam and her dad, 1992

My dad was sort of ordinary, at least for a while. He built ice rinks in the backyard and burned piles of leaves in the street (back when it was legal) with a fearlessness usually reserved for Tom Cruise action movies. For a few years, that same bravado turned him into a star salesman, one who traveled and sold the type of stuff surgeons used in the operating room.

After my parents divorced when I was 12, he turned into the kind of dad who’d drop in now and then, with a showman’s flourish, then leave for months, or later, years without ever contacting us.

My mother raised us — three kids — alone. READ MORE 

Echoes Through Life, Generations

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“Learn from the mistakes of others — you can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”

—John Luther

Today’s story is from Grady Mosby.

A father’s mistakes can echo through generations. I would know. My Dad’s life mistakes echoed through mine. And mine, through my sons’ lives.

mistakes

Grady with his twins, 30 yrs. ago

I’m Grady Mosby. A father. A husband. My twin boys, now 32 years old, are fathers themselves. I can be proud of my life now — I’m a Christian, born-again. A family man. A businessman.

But it was a long, ugly road to get where I am. Some thought I’d never make it (including myself). Alcohol, drugs, women — You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen and done (I sometimes don’t believe them myself).

Where did it begin?
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