Why keep secrets?

I told my children very little about my traumas. I didn’t want the image of my childhood and death of my first husband intertwined with their childhood.

My parents suddenly abandoned all of us when my daughter (and oldest child) turned 18. They skipped her graduation and 18th birthday.

Then I told my children just a tiny bit more about my dysfunctional parents.

A few months later we all moved on as a family, consciously no longer discussing them. The chapter was closed. Our lives with them ended at their doing.

I wrote my memoir 13 years after they vanished.

My secrets finally came out into the light. My life was no longer hidden.

My adult children are now informed.

We’re stronger than ever and closer too.

Natalie