Member-only story
My Father left behind “Demons” after Death
When my father died, I was in my second year of law school and I had not seen him for nearly 20 years.
I chose not to see my father, since he tried to kill my mother. I saw the damage he could cause both physically and emotionally. I knew he was a monster.
I was only six years old when my mother’s injuries were all over the news. I was told that she had fallen off of a ladder. I helped her get out of bed without knowing the truth.
When I was eventually told the truth— that my father tried to kill my mother by taking her down with force and banging her head against the tile floor in the front of our house, I never wanted to see my him again. He terrified me.
His motive? Nothing really— he was mentally ill, and hadn’t taken his medication. She wanted a divorce, and she wanted his dog out of the house. He took more than the dog that day.
The custody battle was terrible, as most custody battles are, but my father had money, and my mother did not. Fear ruled our world. We ate it, and drank it, and breathed it in every day.
I was told that if I saw my father, I should run.
Why? What would happen? There was a real possibility he might kidnap me, and there wasn’t much else we could do…
