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The Day My Daddy Left Home...Apr 06 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line A fictional story which is based upon real life events.
A short fictional story.. It was a cold wet wintery day, Mid November in a little town just off the West coast of Scotland. The wind was howling as 6 year old Sara and 10 year old Michael slowly trudged through the rain making their way to school. They were very quiet and subdued as their Gran in the middle tried her hardest to make small talk. The fact was neither of them were in the mood for chatting….not even to their Gran who always made them laugh! It wasn't just the cold that made them shiver and miserable though... "Dad was moving out! Mum had obviously been crying that morning as her eyes were red rimmed and puffy. Dad was away to work before we woke this morning and it was Gran who came down and made our breakfast and filled our lunchboxes" "Come on you two, chins up……things will be ok" said Gran. "But Gran, We're going to miss him, what if he never comes back? What if we never see him again?" At that Sara burst out crying…………Michael put his arm around her, "Hey c'mon lil sis. We'll still see Dad, just maybe not as often……" Gran had a huge lump in her throat at that, as she knew the true reason for Dad moving out…………………….. When they returned home from school that night Mum had regained her composure and was making them dinner……albeit quieter than usual, not her usual bright and breezy self! "Hello darlings, have you had a nice day at school.?" "Yes, Mum…..is Dad home yet? Asked Sara hesitantly A shadow of pain crosses Mum's eyes as she sadly says "No my darling, he's not……..but you will see him soon" Michael goes to his room and sits playing the playstation for hours and this time Mum doesn't come in and give him a row for playing all night……… " I guess she has other things on her mind" He thinks. That weekend Dad calls them, "I am so very sorry sweetheart" he tells Sara…. "but I can't see you right now, the place where I am living,…Well it doesn't allow children in…..but I will do my best to see you as soon as I possibly can" Michael starts getting angry…… "You don't love us anymore, you don't love Mum, You don't love Sara and You don't love me!!!! Well we don't love you either so there!!!!" Dad cries down the phone……..seems so sad and speaks to Mum who is crying too, Gran has her arm around Mum as she hangs the phone up and sobs on Gran's shoulder…. "Don't let him upset you Mum……he isn't worth it, What's he done? Gone and got himself some cheap tart of a girlfriend and dumped us all and she isn't letting him see us? Well screw him! See if I care!!!" "Michael! No! Don't think that for a minute, It's all very complicated, your Dad DOES still love us all but just can't be with us right now! There are things going on that you don't know about! Please just give us some time to work it out!" "Well bloody tell us Mum cos if you don't I'm never gonna forgive him for what he's doing to you! Or us!!!" Mum sighs and sinks onto the sofa, Gran's holding her hand "You need to tell them the truth Mary, They need to know!" "Ok, you're right Mum, They are old enough I guess to be able to handle it………………" "Michael, Sara come and sit with me please, I have something to tell you both, It's about your Daddy." Michael looks at Sara with a feeling of dread, but Sara has bounded up onto Mum's knee…..desperate for any news of her Dad. "Darlings, your Daddy and I haven't fallen out as you might suspect, he hasn't left us, gone with another woman or disappeared from our lives! No, your Dad isn't a bad man, he loves us all very much and has moved into a place called a hospice, this is a place where he can hopefully get the care and attention he needs………..The care and attention I can't give him as I have to take care of you two! The thing is my sweethearts, Daddy has an illness called Cancer, it is in his lungs and he needs specialist care, he is going to get very sick over the next few weeks and didn't want you both to see him in this way so we thought we'd try protect you from it, but I can see now we were wrong……you both deserve to know what's going on and I think we've hid it from you for long enough now" "Daddy has had this Cancer for 6 months and didn't even tell me about it until just recently when he found out it had spread and he needed urgent hospital attention……….You both remember when he had a business trip last month and came home feeling a bit jet lagged and took to his bed for a few days after?" The children nod their heads, unable to speak through shock, Michael has heard of Cancer but doesn't really know what it is…..Sara can't even begin understand what is going on she is only 6 yrs old. "Well Daddy wasn't on a business trip, he was in hospital getting something called chemotherapy, which was meant to try kill off all the cancer in his body but hasn't worked well enough and only managed to kill some of it…………..he's now in a place where he can get a more aggressive form of the treatment and be able to sleep a lot of the time……..he didn't want you two to know because he didn't want you to see him so sick" Michael and Sara burst into tears, Michael sobbing said "I want to see him Mum, he thinks I hate him, I have to tell him I love him, Please take us to see him, Please!!!" "Is he going to die?" sobbed Sara "I hope not, my darling I hope not!" I sigh, completely void of tears by now………I feel completely drained and tell the children that we will go and see Dad tomorrow. I make a phone call to the hospice to arrange to visit. Next day, Dad is sitting up in bed, trying hard to smile and act like his normal self even though he feels awful, his first intensive chemo and radiotherapy treatment is scheduled for the next day, and he is very frightened! "Hi Dad, I'm so sorry about yesterday!" says Michael as he rushes up and gives him a hug……..Dad clings to him a few seconds longer than he deems necessary, perhaps thinking this may be the last hug he gives his son. Michael senses this clinginess and breaks down……… "Please don't die Dad!" He cries. "I've no intention of dying, I'm here to get better!!!! "Ok kids, time to leave, Dad needs his rest we'll come back and see him in a few days, when he should be feeling a bit better" There wasn't a dry eye in the room as they left. A week later on the Friday afternoon when the children had finished school they were met at the school gates by their Mum as usual, "Hey you two, ready for going to see Dad?" Mum sounded a little chirpier than usual. We got to the hospice at 4pm, Dad was sitting on a chair in the lounge area playing cards with one of the other patients, He was laughing and joking……very pale and sickly looking but in high spirits. Apparently the intense chemo and radiotherapy has shrunk the Cancer in Dad's body, he wasn't out of the woods yet but it was a step in the right direction……….he needed one more course the following week before the doctors could tell for sure…….but it did look promising! Hopefully this time next week the doc would come round and say it had been successful and in time Dad would get back to his normal self, playing football and tickling Sara and me with his beard! Fingers crossed!  |
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