G.R.S.H.
Bluelighter
I just wanted to tell you a little bit about the effect that my son's father's suicide had on him, just so that you have a different perspective. Please understand that this is not a story, this is the truth for my family.I want her to grow without the burden of a mother who is simply put in utter agony.
There is no way to make it sound nice. I'm wanting to kill myself. I would be leaving my daughter. I am aware and hate this. Again, I am thinking realistically (in my opinion) of the benefits my leaving earlier could have on her future.
My son's father was a drug addict, he had started shooting meth by 12 years old. He had a couple of years clean here and there, and spent little to no time being a father to 'his' son. When my son was still a baby he started using again, and I had no choice but to get away. For a time he tried to be a dad, but it didn't last long. He went back to prison, got out, went back, got out. He seemed to have forgotten that he had a son. When my son was about your daughter's age, his father found me. By then he had gotten arrested twice more (after getting out of prison), and was on parole. While he was on parole he stayed 'clean' and started a new relationship with my son. Soon agter that he found out he had Hep C, and was put on interferon. Things spiraled down quickly. He was a raging monster while on it, and quickly pushed away my son.
>>>> Fast forward a bit>>> My son talked to his father 3 times in 3 years. He was in the middle of a horrible and abusive relationship. He and I were butting heads like two animals trying to kill themselves. I found out his father was living 5 miles from us, and took my son there so we could get some space and scheduled a counseling appointment for us. He stayed at his father's home for one night. When we dropped him off his father told me that things had been bad, he had been doing heroin and had to 'get clean' and it had been miserable. When I picked my son up the next day from a friends house, he didn't want to see his father again.
They had a horrible relationship- my son never felt close to father. His father never learned how to care about his son. Do you get what I mean here? They were never close, my son never felt like his father loved him, never felt like his father was there for him, etc.
The night I picked my son up from his friend's, the night after my son spent the night with his father for the first time in 2 years, his father committed suicide.
My son was shattered. He became suicidal. He was angry. He was hurt. He had to be institutionalized to keep him from harming himself. He spent a lot of time in there trying to get his head straight. He blames himself for his father's death, to this day! His father had so many demons, and my son thinks it is his fault.
This is your choice to make. I truly believe that. Your life, your death, your choice. I am not trying to talk you out of your feelings, your choices.
What is not your choice, is the feelings that it will leave on those that you leave behind. A 10 year old little girl will not be thinking about what happened, she will be feeling the loss of her mommy, she might felt lost, responible, afriad, like she did something to cause it, hopeless, lost, and so much more. For her, this will not be seen as a choice you made for you, but as something done to her, taken from her, stolen.
How do you feel when you see your little girl smile? When you make your little girl laugh, what do you feel inside? When you take her to the park, and watch her swing high and free, does your heart hurt? Is it glad? How do you feel when you get to kiss her cheek, tuck her in, say goodnight in your own special way? When was the last time you read her a story? Did you find a story that she loved when she was little? Is there a movie that made her laugh? What games do you like to play with your baby girl? Do you binge watch a TV show together? Do you take her swimming? Have you watched her ride a horse? Have you watched her first love?
She is so young, and has so much more joy to share with you. I hope you think not about her being 'taking care of' by well off family. I hope you think of her heart, her soul, her joy, her pain, her needs, her love. I hope she never has to wonder what she did that mommy go away.
I hope you know, that whether are children are 10, or fifteen, the loss of parent is not something the think about rationally.
I hope you find a way to be happy in the life you have. I hope you understand that it takes years to recover from medication, hurt, loss, and that you can get better. I hope you can look at your little girl, she her smile at you, and know that she loves you. That you, and only you, are her mommy.
It has been just over a year for my son, half that time he spent in an institution, trying to find himself. He has spent the other half trying different drugs, looking for a way to numb the pain.