October, 1997
There's a lot of background to my story, and I'm really not sure where to start, except at the beginning. I think I'll break it up into parts to hopefully make it a little easier to read. I will warn you early that I tend to write a lot so this may be a novel in itself when I'm finished...
Life -- home and family
I was born in Southern California in a suburb of Los Angeles in the fall of 1971, to an unwed mother. I had several birth defects, some of which were taken care of right away, and some of which still affect me today. Among the latter are severe scoliosis, for which I have had two spinal fusions, and heart and lung problems, due to holes between the left and right sides of my heart. The doctors didn't expect me to live into adulthood, but here I am at the age of 26 to prove them wrong.
My mother was just shy of 17 when I was born, and I made for a lot of responsibility, so my grandmother and her husband adopted me, and took care of me. I was a year and a half when the adoption was complete, and my mother left and wasn't heard from for some 17 years.
My grandmother (whom I call my mom) and her husband (my dad) eventually got divorced when I was around 5, or maybe a bit younger. My mom remarried, a guy who had a very nice house, but wanted a replacement for his dead wife, and really didn't seem to like kids much. I was maybe 6, but I really don't remember much about him so I guess I just stayed away from him for the most part. I went to see my (adopted) dad every other weekend, and he would spoil me a bit, but not too badly, I guess.
Mom eventually divorced the man, and we have been pretty much on our own ever since. We lived with a couple different boyfriends of hers, moved through several apartments, a house, a condo, and now we've moved cross-country to Missouri, where Mom would be near her relatives after she had to quit working due to injury. Of course, as fate would have it, her brother and sister have both moved away now (three years or so after we've moved), so we're here more or less on our own.
Alternating-weekend visits with my dad dwindled down to once a month, and then just to holidays, and he eventually remarried and his wife doesn't seem to think much of any of us kids (I forgot to mention that I have four sisters and three brothers... I hardly grew up with thim, but maybe I'll write more about them later). I haven't seen my Dad since I moved away from California. I sent him a birthday card the first time I went back out there to visit my friends, and told him where he could get in touch with me, but he never responded. I've had one or two letters, and Christmas cards with checks, but for the most part that's all I've heard from him. I get an update from my oldest sister every year at Christmas, and so that's how I know what's going on with all of them. *sigh*
|| Life | Doctors and hospitals | Growing Up Different ||
|| Love | Frustrations | Happy days... | Sad days, too ||
