A little piece of my life.....

Hello everyone! As I mentioned in my earlier post, I was going to tell give more detail about my parents' divorce. So here it is. It was very hard for me to write about but I feel some much needed relief.

My Broken Home

            It was the year 2000, the beginning of a new century. As a five year old, I thought my life was absolutely perfect. What more could a child want? My mom and dad were together and I got almost everything that I wanted.

            Over the course of the next year or so, my life changed. My mom and dad were having problems and I didn’t notice what was happening. Before, when my dad came home from work, he would give me a hug or a kiss but now he wasn’t really talking to me or my mom. He would just ignore us when he came home. In our house, we had a basement. It took about thirteen stairs to get to the end. It was like a nice, cozy apartment down there. It had a dining room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom. When you first came down the stairs, it was a bar that was powder pink and had three cream-colored leather bar stools. A few steps away from the bar was the dining area. There was a round glass table with four chairs around it. The living room had a cream couch, loveseat, and chaise. The bedroom had a king-size bed, I don’t remember the exact style. The basement could also be locked. He would be gone all day, come home to us and go straight to the basement and lock us out. I didn’t know how to feel about it, I was so young and I don’t remember them arguing but a few times. My mom didn’t show her emotions around me, so I never knew how she felt about it.

            My parents’ anniversary was June 8. In June 2001, they went on a cruise for their anniversary. I didn’t go, so I don’t know what happened on the trip, but when they got back everything went downhill from there. It was about two months after they had gotten back. My mom was giving me a bath and we heard the front door open. My dad came home from work and had just found out about an income tax check my mom spent on bills for the house. I believe he had other plans for it, so he was so angry that my mom had spent it all. They were arguing between the locked bathroom door. I was so afraid that I hid behind the door. All of a sudden a huge “boom” comes through the door. My dad had kicked the door in while I was behind the door and it slammed against my arm. There was another door that was in the bathroom were the closet was and my arm got smashed between the two doors. I screamed and cried and the next thing you know I was like a rope, and they were playing Tug of War with my arms. They were fighting over who would get to comfort me first. I was getting pulled left to right, left to right and finally my mom won. She picked me up and took me to their room and looked at my arm. I don’t bruise easily, so it was just sore at the moment. My arm was in excruciating pain. When it all died down, they went their separate ways like every night and I got ready for bed since it was late. I don’t remember how I felt going to bed that night. I was just worried about my arm.

            You could cut the tension in my house with a knife over the next few months. It was Labor Day weekend and my dad’s cousin and his wife were coming from Michigan to visit. My dad had stayed out all night till the wee hours of the morning. Him, my cousin, and his wife went out that night and he left them wherever they were and went somewhere else. It really upset them and they left and came back to our house. The next day or two, my mom decided to talk to him and try to get him to act better while we had company. I could hear them talking in the middle of the night while I was in my room. The conversation escaladed into an argument and I heard another “boom” that scared me to death. They opened the door to check on me and when they did I saw a slight hole in my bedroom door. My dad had punched the door from being so angry. Once my cousins left, I thought everything would be okay but it was the last straw.

            Fast forward to October, my mom was braiding my hair. My dad came in from work, said something to me, went down into the basement and came back up the stairs to do something else. After he was done doing what he had to do, he was going back down the stairs to lock himself in the basement again and he realized the handle was gone, it was just a hole there. My mom was tired of him being gone from 3:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. coming in the house and not speaking to me or her and locking himself up until the next morning. She was fed up and this made him outraged. My mom was braiding my hair in their room. It was a fairly small room for a king-size bed to fit in but they made it work and also had a chester drawer and a chair too. The bed was in a corner and the bed post was right in between my legs so no one could walk through unless I moved. My dad began to pack his clothes up and get ready to leave. He jumped across the bed to this chester drawer and started bringing clothes back and forth. My mom and I just sat there calmly and she continued to do my hair. She was almost finished and when she was done, he was just about done packing his clothes.

            Then the argument comes, I can’t remember exactly where I was in the house but the thing that stood out the most to me was the most evil thing one human being can say to another human being. My dad told my mom “I hate you!” and he said he was going to sell the house and didn’t care where me or my mom lived. I do believe it was all out of anger but I will never forget that moment when he told her he hated her.

            For the next couple of weeks, I didn’t see my dad. No one ever clearly told me about the divorce. I just know that I started going with my dad every other weekend. My feelings were crushed, I didn’t know rather it was my fault or if it was just time for them to part ways. I never questioned it and never got to express my feelings about it.

I have forgiving my dad and he has been here for me to this day. Since then, my dad has remarried. I didn’t like my stepmom at first but as I’ve gotten older, I have begun to love her. My mom has a boyfriend now. I didn’t like him at first, and still don’t sometimes but he has been around me since I was seven. Back then I was afraid to get married but right now I have been in a steady relationship for five years. I’m not exactly sure if it will lead to marriage in the future but I’m excited to see what the future holds for me and him. I hope and pray that if we do get married, it will last forever.