My parents live in Manchester while Ive built my life in London.
We havent laid eyes on each other in more than twenty years. Both of them are performers in a traditional English folk choir, their entire existence wrapped up in endless tours. When I was just five, I was sent to live with my grandmother. In order to better manage, she had to move to stay with her relatives in Lincolnshire. In the beginning, Mum and Dad would pop by to see us perhaps twice, sometimes three times a year, but those visits grew rarer and rarer, until eventually they stopped altogether. I stopped thinking much about them. Eventually, all contact faded away. During medical school, I married in my third year.
Now my husband and I run our own dental practice, and business is thriving. Then, a year ago, my parents resurfaced. They started ringing the clinic because they didnt even have my mobile number. Our calls turned out to be nothing but long lists of their grievances with life.
I listened quietly, but finally told them that it was their choice, all those years ago, to leave their daughter to be raised by her grandmother. Occasionally, theyd slip my grandmother a scant few pounds, but mostly we survived on her state pension. Shed remind me of this, though I hardly needed remindingas we scrimped and scraped, cutting corners wherever possible.
I fared well at school and earned a grant for university. Still, in order to keep food on the table and buy clothes, I worked through the nights as a nurse at the local hospital. Now I feel as though Ive forged my own path, and my parents have theirsthey can make of it what they will.
Once my parents realised I wasnt about to bail them out, they threatened to take me to court for maintenance. But, considering the present state of things between our two families, I find it hard to believe theyd get anywhere. Hearing this from them was the final straw. If, before, Id had even a shred of doubt about cutting them off, if Id considered for a moment helping them out, that was now gone. I want nothing more to do with them.
Am I being unfair, or is this the only thing left for me to do?
