/loves on

he has a kind face

Yeah

This is my one of my favorite pictures of him, way back when he was in college

I have the original framed and hanging on my wall

love the floof

Mom was his second wife; his first was a woman called Barbara, and one of the reasons they divorced was because he wanted kids and she didn't. (I wonder if I, a a tiny two or three year old, was part of the appeal when he proposed to Mom). Chels and I talked a bit about Barbara and trying to get hold of her, but we don't know how

or if she would care? that marriage was a long, long time ago; it's nice to think that someone you loved enough to marry would always hold a small place in your heart, but who knows

that's tough. when Michael died, we debated pretty fiercely contacting his divorced wife and daughter. he was completely estranged from them, though, and didn't want any contact so we wound up... not

he was Mom's second husband. her first was my biological father, who died by suicide when i was an infant. Mom was twenty. imagine being fucking twenty, a new mom, and a widow

oh my god. and a widow because of that

we'd have to hire a PI to find Barbara at this point, assuming shed care to be found, assuming she's alive

YEP

Mom has fuckin been through it

dad was 17 years older than she was, which, don't love that. but i also don't think he was like a predator who couldn't get women his age. i think he wanted a chance at being a dad, and i think Mom fell for him because he was funny as fuck and made her laugh, which she very much needed

he married her and adopted me, and they had my sister, and the marriage lasted less than a decade. Mom became a single parent and Dad (who btw I am fucking convinced had ADHD, a lot of the things we had in common were my symptoms) wasn't great with child support, but he stayed in our lives

Mom doesn't understand why it's so important to me that Dad continued to love me as his daughter. she figures it was his job. i figure there are many men who don't give a fuck about their bio kids, never mind any adopted ones

anyway

i'm so fucking lucky to have had him

he was the best thing that could have happened to me with my biological father gone

Mom and i have both been through some shit. very shit different shit, but shit all the same

after the acrimony of the divorce passed, Mom and Dad became good friends, which is probably what they were meant to be all along. fuck knows she was devastated by his death

anyway. the end