My aunt left home at 15 because she was on d***s and had gotten into trouble. My Dad was about 10 at the time. She was probably going to be arrested, so she took off. My grandmother, her mother, didn’t hear from her for 3 years. In that time she did any d**g she could get her hands on, hitchhiked with some hippies (it was 1972) and made her way to California. There she did some more d***s and got Hep C.
The story gets better. She got clean, reached out to my grandfather, and let him visit. She had begun building a life and had some good friends. She met and married a man, and the had a baby when she was in her early 20s. Then she dumped the guy and raised her son alone. She met another guy, and they were together a long time and raised her son together. That man has passed away, but her son (my cousin) still thinks of him as Dad.
Then, she sold her house to go to college. She finished undergrad, than grad school while my cousin was a teenager. She got back in touch with and got close to my dad, a married man by the time with myself and my brother either there or on the way. She completed her masters and became a professor at a small, community college in California. Her son moved out, and sort of smoked w**d and did nothing until he got his gf pregnant. They didn’t work out, but he stepped up to be a father, and got a much better job and a house. He met a kindergarten teacher who loved children when his kid was 2, and married her. They had two more kids, and his first lives with them full time because the mom kind of disappeared. His wife is a Pinterest mom who takes them to Disney as the characters, and he’s gainfully employed. My wayward aunt retires from her tenured position next year to spend more time as the doting grandmother.
The story gets better. She got clean, reached out to my grandfather, and let him visit. She had begun building a life and had some good friends. She met and married a man, and the had a baby when she was in her early 20s. Then she dumped the guy and raised her son alone. She met another guy, and they were together a long time and raised her son together. That man has passed away, but her son (my cousin) still thinks of him as Dad.
Then, she sold her house to go to college. She finished undergrad, than grad school while my cousin was a teenager. She got back in touch with and got close to my dad, a married man by the time with myself and my brother either there or on the way. She completed her masters and became a professor at a small, community college in California. Her son moved out, and sort of smoked w**d and did nothing until he got his gf pregnant. They didn’t work out, but he stepped up to be a father, and got a much better job and a house. He met a kindergarten teacher who loved children when his kid was 2, and married her. They had two more kids, and his first lives with them full time because the mom kind of disappeared. His wife is a Pinterest mom who takes them to Disney as the characters, and he’s gainfully employed. My wayward aunt retires from her tenured position next year to spend more time as the doting grandmother.