My parents anniversary is in November as well.
This same year, in November of 1984 was also the last time my dad physically hit me.
It wasn't until just recently I realized why he had this huge blowout, meltdown, and came charging down the hall and punched me in the face, twice.
I had no idea why he did this, he and mom had been shopping for antiques that day. Came home and I showed up and next thing I know, dad is running down the hall and I'm almost knocked out.
He must have gone {more] crazy that she had found me and there was an upcoming reunion?
We met the next month, in December and my dad was trying to fix up the house, he actually put up the shutters on the outside of the house he had previously taken down in one of his paranoid rages. I guess at the time, being 19, I did not give it much thought. But for him to do this, meant he wanted to make a good impression, and the house looked so bad from him ripping out all of the plants in our front yard, putting up security bars on every window and taking down the cute shutters around the windows.
HUGE LIGHT WENT OFF IN MY HEAD when I realized the timing of my dads blowup. Here I was, just a kid and I was expected to endure this man cold cocking me in the face twice while sitting down, and expected to know why! Nothing had happened, that I could think of, we hadn't even spoke that day! If he really was upset about my birth mom finding me, why didn't he just sit down and say he was upset, or worried or something? And for heavens sake, why was he upset anyhow? This is the same man that would tell me to stay away from his daughter (my sister) saying that I was not his daughter, while pushing me aside. He didn't give a darn how I felt, obviously not even after birth mom found me. Just about knocking me out, at the time and for all these years I thought he did this because of his hatred towards me.
I got up from my chair, pushed him as hard as I could, I was stunned, and he was pretty heavy at the time and I was a mere size 2 if that. I went storming for the telephone. I screamed, that I was calling the police and having him arrested. Mom started crying, saying it was her anniversary, and she didn't want dad to go to jail. I screamed out loud, that he would never hit me again, this was the last time. And I meant it. Its funny in those days we had the home phone on a super long cord so you could walk around the house with it and talk. I remember pacing around with the phone in my hand, ready to dial the police.
Amazing I ever spoke to him again, writing this blog it amazes me that I continued to act out the motions of being the daughter and sister in this family. Mom even lied about it happening after the fact, made it out to be something different than it really was. All I knew was that I got punched, while sitting down at the kitchen table, looking at antiques mom had just bought. There was no way of changing this story into something different!
Whats sick is, mom probably knows why it happened to begin with. She lived with him, and I guarantee he was spouting off at the mouth about my birth mom coming to meet us. No way was he quiet about it, just not his style.
During our reunion time I had driven down to the Orange County area to see the birth families on my own, after the initial meeting with my birth mom & full brother at my parents house. My dad had screamed at me to never talk to him again, that basically I could change my name and take theirs and never have anything to do with him again. He was fine with this. As though it was all my fault they chose adoption.
It amazes me, that it has taken all these years to figure this out. This November it will be 31 years since this happened! I'd like to say that none of this matters, but that would be sweeping it under the carpet and allowing it to build and build until one day it would come busting out of the seams. Really understanding and believing that I was and still am a good girl, a nice girl, is important to me. For years I thought I was seriously defective, a bad girl, and that it was my fault that neither of my parents loved or cared about me.
I cannot tell you what a revelation it was figuring this out. I bet there are many other incidents in my life, like this I have yet to figure out.
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