Not so long ago, in a house just down the street lived a
family, a Mother, a Father and a beautiful little girl.
The Father loved his daughter with all his heart. He lived
for her smile, and saw sunbeams when she laughed. The Father doted on his
little girl and protected her from all the monsters under the bed, the spiders
in the closet and the shadows in the corners.
The Father loved his wife to. He did his best to provide for
her, to keep her safe from the outside world and shelter her in his arms. But
one day, the Mother decided that her fairytale didn’t include the Father. She
decided that she wanted her life back. She resented the intrusion the Little
Girl had made in her life. So the Mother left.
The Father cried, his heart was broken, the Little Girl
cried, she didn’t know where her Mother was. Together, they held each other and
slowly, ever so slowly they built a world of sunshine together again. Slowly
the Little Girl started laughing sunbeams and the Father started smiling again.
The Mother had been gone a long time now, and life was becoming normal again.
After the sunshine started coming back into the Little
Girl’s smile, after the Father started mending his heart the Mother decided she
didn’t want the Father to be happy. She decided that other people would like
her more if she had a pretty Little Girl who laughed like sunshine. So the
Mother decided to take the Little Girl away from the Father.
She said terrible things about the Father. She painted
nightmares with her words, and sometimes she painted nightmares on her body and
blamed them on the Father. She told the beautiful Little Girl that her Father
was a monster. She told the beautiful Little Girl that Father didn’t love her,
that he didn’t want her. Mother lied to the Little Girl.
The Little Girl cried and cried. She cried herself to sleep,
she cried during the day. Most of all she cried when she had to leave her
Father. The Little Girl loved her Father more than anything in the world. She
would be silly just to make him laugh. She felt all warm and safe when he
laughed. She would play tricks on him to make him smile. It was like a hug
every time he smiled. The Little Girl knew her Mother was lying.
The Father didn’t like what the Mother was doing, he wanted
his beautiful Little Girl to be happy all the time, not crying. The Mother
wouldn’t give her back, so the Mother and the Father went in front of a man in
a black robe on a high seat. He had a wooden hammer in his hand and sometimes
he hit it on his desk with a bang.
It took years and years. It took lots of standing in front
of the man with the black robe and the wooden hammer. Eventually though the
Father got to see the Little Girl every second weekend and some of each
holiday. The Little Girl wasn’t happy; she wanted to see her Father more. The
Father wasn’t happy; he wanted to see the Little Girl all the time. The Mother
was happy, she got the Little Girl all the time, and Father had to pay her
money every month.
Years passed. The Father’s heart broke again every time he
had to take the beautiful Little Girl back to her Mother’s. The Little Girl
cried and her heart broke too. It wasn’t fair you see, what the Mother was
doing, but the man in the black robe had said this was the best he would do for
Father.
One day, a girl with hair the color of a fall forest met the
beautiful Little Girl. She met the Father with the breaking heart. The girl
with hair the color of fall saw the sadness in both of them and her heart broke
too. She was younger than Father, she was younger than the Mother (though not
by that much). She was older than the beautiful Little Girl (though not by so
much she couldn’t relate).
The Younger Woman decided that if she could help the Father,
and help the Little Girl to be happy again she would. She decided to love the
two of them with all her heart. The Younger Woman poured her love into all of
the cracks and seams in Father’s heart and helped it heal. She wrapped her love
around the beautiful Little Girl like a warm blanket and helped her stop crying
all the time. The Younger Woman worked hard to help Father have a little extra
money after giving Mother the money every month. She and Father saved up for
special things for the beautiful Little Girl together.
The beautiful Little Girl, The Father and the Younger Woman
became a family of sorts. The loved each other dearly. They learned how to make
each other smile sunbeams.
Mother didn’t like the Younger Woman. She didn’t like that
the Father was happy again. She didn’t like that the Little Girl was imitating
the Younger Woman’s way of talking and dressing. Mother decided to hate the
Younger Woman. Mother complained to all her friends about the Younger Woman.
She said the Younger Woman was a bad person. She said the Younger Woman was
stealing her money from Father for things like diamond rings and new shoes.
The Younger Woman wanted to say a lot of nasty things to the
Mother. She wanted very badly to make the Mother hurt as badly as the Father
and the Little Girl had been hurting all this very long time. The Younger Woman
couldn’t though. It would only hurt Father and Little Girl more if she did
that. So the Younger Woman made sure the Little Girl was loved more than any
other Little Girl could be. She baked cookies with her, and went squelching in
mud with her. The Younger Woman played games with the Little Girl, and brushed
her hair. She gave the Little Girl someone to talk to. More importantly, the
Younger Woman gave the Little Girl someone who would listen.
The Younger Woman decided that there had to be more Younger
Women out there. She decided that it was important to share her story.
The above is very much the truth, though it is a blending of
my childhood, and the childhood of my Beautiful Step-daughter. I’ve wanted for
years to share the story of women in my position, women who have become part of
a broken family and helped make it a little more whole.
Wow! Beautiful words to describe an awful story but with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing Cinnoman, your man and his girl are very lucky to have you in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThere's not much I can add that hasn't already been said but thank you so much for sharing this story.
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful story and I know the pain and the anguish and the love all too well. My story as the father was a little different but the similarities are striking. My wonderful wife was actually a little older than me but she did very much the same and my daughter has become all the better because of it. Your story is an inspiration to stepmothers and I hope it gets around.
ReplyDeleteYour way of using words is always fantastic, this was a very deep, powerful and meaningful account. Way in which you presented the story was very unique indeed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a little closed to comfort in a way, I am adopted and I can totally relate to some of the feelings presented in this account.
That is superb. Thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for reading :) Glad it's striking a chord...this is something more of us need to talk about and share <3
ReplyDeleteKnowing most of the parties involved in this story, I can't believe how amazing a job you did of telling the story without naming names, or slinging mud! Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteAnd just as a note...Mother is as crazy as a Loon, and I think if Young Woman ever used someone elses money to buy shoes or diamonds, the Earth would rapidly cease spinning, it would be so outside of the bounds of the Laws of the Universe, that things would just break!