Denver,
United States
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
Leaving here was so hard. The short of it was, I've never been closer with my Dad in all my life and I became part of a new family here. The first speaks for itself and is reason enough to say that my time in Denver was well worth it, but also, and no disrespect or disregard to other family members on my mothers side, but I've never experienced the acceptance in family like I did in Denver. A brief history: my Mom has many brothers and sisters, all of whom I thought I had met and then when I was 22 I met Phil, her half-brother, and Cris, my uncle and aunt, and all these cousins from Denver who I had never heard a word about in my life! To keep it short, Phil and his family and I instantly hit it off (I have a great pic, the first day we met, of me sitting in his lap like he was Santa asking what I wanted for Christmas) and I immediately got along with his family better and was more accepted than I had with anybody on my mothers side. On the occasions I visited my Dad in Denver, Phil made sure that he and the entire family were available to meet for dinner and catch up and when I moved to Denver it was like I magically had a new family. Suddenly I was included in family dinners and family outings, birthdays, etc. and it was like I gained three sisters and a brother and even another mother and father at times, honorary second parents who took me in without question. Phil and Cris and their/my family were wonderful. I became so close that I was honored by my cousin by being asked to be godfather to her first baby boy, Xavier!
Added all together, the combination of becoming close with my father AND leaving Phil and Cris and my "new" family (let's even throw in leaving my dog Ginger behind in there) made leaving Denver one of the hardest and most emotionally troubling times for me in my entire life. After leaving my Dads house and then stopping and saying goodbye to Cris, I had to pull off the road and recuperate...I was too messed up to even drive.
