Spoke with a stranger for 30 minutes and thought it was my father.....

Started by Liketheducks, April 23, 2020, 08:19:23 AM

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Liketheducks

The day before yesterday, my father messaged me through facebook messenger asking if I'd be willing to talk with him.   This is a very new development.   In the last, nearly 30 years, I've been the one to initiate contact....under the terms of lets keep this simple, just know each other, talk about weather, etc.   And every time he's gone to how bad mom was.  How she egged him on.   How I'm just like her, etc.   Whenever he'd gone there, I'd gently cut him off and we'd be NC again for a few years.   Crappy pattern.   But, for him to reach out to me was highly unusual.   Given the pandemic, I thought maybe he might be scared.
So I called the last number I had for him.  Same area code, same town exchange.   The voice I heard was the same accent, same chain smoker's gruff sound.      The voice had a daughter my age.   The voice was just qualifying for a VA disability.   The voice had a sister in FL.   The voice always wanted to become a Commerical pilot.   The voice was looking for an apartment, but struggling.   The voice mentioned about his struggles with opioid addiction.   The voice was kind and gentle.   The voice said he was sorry about how things panned out, but that he was so proud of me.    And, then.....the voice gently said...."Sweetie, I don't think I am who you think I am".   He was a totally different name.   My first thought was that "dad" was done with the conversation and made up a name (and that would be completely in character for my real father).   It was the best conversation I've had with "dad" in 30 years. 
It gave me the courage to call the second number I had for dad.   We did speak.   He still has all the struggles that "dad" has.   He doesn't have it in him to apologize, but he was able to say that he was proud of me and loved me.   I'm not rushing back into that level of chaos, but it certainly was an interesting turn of events. 

Danie

For real? This isn't some creative writing, a metaphor for what you wish? That's crazy   :stars:

I have a similar story. Many years ago after my parents were divorced and my dad had remarried and built a new home we (siblings) were invited for Christmas.
My younger sister and I were probably in our early twenties and drove together. It was a new housing development about 15 miles away from where we grew up.
It was winter (obviously) so dark and cold and we drove around a little before we found his house. We had only been there a couple times.
We knocked and a child let us in. It was a small blond boy. My dad had 3 more children with his wife and they were still little. We sat down in the living room and waited. The house was quiet and the child just sat there quietly. My sister asked the child, "where's dad"? and the kid seemed confused and didn't answer. I finally realized the boy wasn't our half brother and we were in the wrong house! So we quickly got up and left. So funny! We drove around a little more and found the right house a couple blocks away.

Liketheducks

Absolutely for real.    My new "dad" has so many similarities with real dad.   And, I hadn't heard my real dad's voice in so long, I couldn't be sure.   God has a sense of humor.    But, sitting in the wrong house??   That's crazy!   

Konoha

This is a little spooky but maybe God sends you the second chance to find a father?! It is obvious to you to check it or not.