It so happened that I don’t remember my father at all. My mom told me that everything was fine before the surgeries. My father was there, he helped and supported us in every way. Only he lived with us for only a year. And after my first day of birth, he disappeared. At that time, there were no phones, and my mother did not know where to look for him. At work, they didn’t know anything, and his friends were wondering where he had gone. It was very hard for my mom then. She tripled her part-time job as a seamstress. My mom took me to work with her every day, even on weekends. I remember how cold it was in their office, I was constantly freezing. Because of this, I was often sick throughout my childhood, almost becoming a chronic runny nose. And when I went to kindergarten, my mother managed to work as a nanny.
There was always not enough money, but my mother tried for my sake. I became her meaning of life after my father’s betrayal. That’s how I graduated from school and then from university. Now I work and help my mother in every way possible. I make sure she gets more rest and is less nervous. There hasn’t been any news about my father in all these years. We lived in the same apartment, and he never came to visit, never even congratulated us on the holiday. And then one evening, while my mom was making cherry pies and I was lying on the couch after work, someone knocked on our door. My mom went to open the door, and I heard a man’s voice. It immediately made me nervous, because we don’t know any men. I went out into the corridor, and there was a hunched old man with a cane standing in the doorway. My mom went into the kitchen and said it was my father.
He started crying and apologizing. He said he was young and stupid. He just ran away from responsibility, from his family. He lived in a neighboring town, where he has a new family, a daughter a little younger than I. Only then he started drinking, and his second wife kicked him out. And now, in his old age, he has started to have problems with his health, his heart is weak. His daughter wouldn’t let him back in. So he had the last hope for us. To be honest, I don’t even know what to do. On the one hand, he is my father and I have been waiting for him all my life. But, on the other hand, he abandoned us, and he remembered when we needed help. I am most sorry for my mother, I didn’t want her to go through all the pain that my father caused. I left him unanswered, saying I needed time to think. My mom wouldn’t tell me anything, she said it had to be my decision alone.
