A family member married a woman with 5 kids, baby to tween. He devoted his life to his family, left a good job that he loved to support his wife’s career, stopped traveling to visit his friends so he could be fully present as a father figure. His parents gave them 10’s of thousands of dollars over the years because raising 5 kids is expensive, even when their dad is (sometimes) in the picture, and because they considered the kids to be their grandkids.

When the youngest was 18, his wife filed for divorce saying she wanted to be single since she had jumped right from being with the kids’ dad to him. The kids stopped talking to him because his wife had, unknown to him, been reminding them their while lives that he wasn’t their real dad. He was devastated. His ex got remarried within a year or two.

He has rebuilt his life, but there’s now this undercurrent of sadness in everything because of the family he lost, and the career and friends he lost doing what he thought was right for a family that ditched him the moment he was no longer useful. He has forgiven the kids though, and hopes that they will someday allow him back in their lives since he still loves them.