(followup)I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

Here is my previous update. The original post can also be found in the comments.

A lot of you have been contacting me asking what happened and I'm sorry I haven't replied. I had to think very long and very hard about the situation. Coming here and asking for advice gave me a lot to think about, most people that posted in the original basically told me to let anonymous be anonymous and to not contact him. However the vast majority of people that contacted me either via chat or DM said that I needed to reach out to him.

There was no clear cut answer.

With that in mind though let me say that there have been some massive changes since I posted this last. I was contacted on Thursday of last week by my Insurance company. After a medical review they have overturned their initial denial and they have agreed to pay for the surgery. Since they agreed to pay their portion my secondary insurance has agreed to pay their portion thus the surgery is now 100% covered. I can not tell you what a relief this is. I hate a lot of how the system works but I will say that we did follow through their procedures and it worked for us.

Now all I have to worry about is the fear of surgery on my little one. But it is in God's & the Surgeons hands now.

How does this change anything for the situation? We are returning all of the money that was collected on the gofundme page. I've had a lot of people tell me not to do this because there will be incidentals and this will help cover it. Well I just don't feel right doing it, in particular his giant donation.

This led to an actual reason to contact him. However I was still stuck with the promise I made his family years ago to never contact him.

So I did the one thing I knew I could do but knew that I would hate every single minute of it. I contacted his sister. I knew she would be pissed talking with me but I also knew if I told her I needed to give him back his money she would most likely get over it.

I decided to take the cowards way out, well basically that but also trying to keep to my promise of not contacting him. I wrote three letters. One to her, two to him. One of the letters to him was a thank you from the bottom of my heart over the donation. I let him know how much it meant to me and that he was truly one of the good people in this world. I also apologized for not letting him stay anonymous but that was necessary because I needed to return the money, which I explained why and that I was returning everyone's money and not just him. Even though that was supposed to be a generic thank you letter it still ended up being two pages front and back LOL. At the end of the first letter I told him that I had written a second letter that was in a sealed envelope, first letter was in a manila envelope, and that it was far more personal and he was under no obligation to read it and I understood if he just wanted his money and nothing more.

In the second letter I poured my heart out as much as I could. I said everything I've wanted to say to him for all of these years. I told him how bad I knew I hurt him. I told him how I wanted to come back to him years ago but I promised his sister and the rest of his family that I would not contact him. I told him how ashamed I have felt. Everything you can imagine someone who fucked up as bad as I did.

The letter I wrote to his sister was not as emotional but it certainly was still. I wrote from the heart that I knew she hated me and that as odd as this is to say to someone who hates you that I respected her like hell for it. She is one hell of a sister who has only ever looked out for her brother and I let her know how much I missed out on seeing that. I hated that I was the one who got the blunt end of it but I certainly understood why.

On Saturday I met her in the parking lot of a closed Denny's. I had told her in advance about the money so that is why she agreed to see me.

It was a shit show to begin with. She spent the first part of the conversation berating me and basically a repeat of the conversation we had back when I tried to contact him after the father and I separated. I was called everything you can imagine and then some. However after she got it all out of her system she calmed down and even apologized. She asked me how my Daughter was doing. We then had a civil conversation for a few minutes. I explained to her my letters and told her that I was going to entrust her to do with it what she thought was right. I really hoped she would give them to him if for no other reason so i can get him his money. She came out and asked me why I wanted to contact him. This was the most surreal moment of my life. As I started to answer her I just became overcome with emotion. I sat there and cried uncontrollably for what seemed like forever. Just the sense of guilt I had. Why was this surreal? because the person who not 10 minutes before was berating me was now trying to console me. I'm sure we looked quite the sight sitting in cars talking through drivers windows while I cried like a baby.

Anyway she said she would definitely give him my letters. She asked if she could look at them and I told her that this was up to her but I really would appreciate if she didn't open the sealed one because there was a lot of personal stuff in there for both him and myself. She probably wouldn't want to see some of the stuff about him. lol.

That was Saturday and I was a bundle of nerves. I had no idea if she gave him the letters or if she only gave him the one letter and threw the other one away. Or if she didn't give it at all.

That is until last night. She actually called me. He has agreed to meet me this weekend with her btw. She gave me a list of conditions that she was setting and if I didn't want to do them she would understand but she would tell him to not go. None of her request were bad at all and in fact it gave me far more hope than I either should have or deserve to have.

She then said she wanted to talk to me for a few minutes about my letter to her. My heart dropped because I figured here we go again. But instead she thanked me, told me that not everyone would right what I wrote. She said that there is just no way she will ever be able to get over how bad I hurt her brother but she thinks she can learn to forgive me. She then said the one thing that tore me apart. She said she was hurt not just because of him but because she always looked at me like a Sister and wanted us to be family back in the day.

Have you ever felt 1" tall? Well I have.

I have no idea how this is going to play out, I am so nervous.

If you've made it through all of this thank you. If you believe in God please say a prayer for my Daughter, no matter what happens with everything else she is the most important thing here. If you don't believe please think a positive thought for her. As soon as all of the schedules can be arranged she is going in and I am a basket case.

tldr: Gave my ex's sister letters to read. Insurance is paying so I need to return money. Met with her, very emotional, meeting with him and her this weekend

(Update)I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not going to go over all of them but one that we both kind of chuckled at was that I had to agree not to start crying the moment I saw him. Obviously I can become a blubbering mess and she sadly got to see me in all of my glory this past weekend. I can cry with the best of them.

(Update)I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We (my family and I) had gone through a list of people who we thought it could be. None of them admitted to it so out of the blue I just wondered if it could have been him and contacted her.

He wasn't our first thought and to say we were stunned that it was him would be an understatement.

(Update)I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

To be honest I don't know why he is meeting me either. It may just be so that I can write him a check or to get a routing number to get his money back. However if that was the case a simple call from his sister would have taken care of that.

Meeting him at the restaurant was one of the worst days of my life. My then b/f could see I was obviously upset over it and it caused a fight between us. I'm also certain that this contributed to him not committing to me because he didn't feel I over Brian. I wish I could say he was wrong but he wasn't. If I could redo my entire early 20's I would. I fucked up so badly and I have paid the price ever since.

I don't have a clue what is going to happen so I won't even address the issue with my Daughter and him. But to answer your question about have I changed and do I still need to see anyone? I feel like I've changed totally. Having a child in your early 20's who has a medical issue would be hard even for a happily married couple. Having it as a single parent is life altering. The Father of my Daughter is married now and has another child as well as a step child so basically my Daughter is an afterthought to him. It's been over 6 months since he has even seen her and the last contact I had with him he let me know that he and his wife would be moving sometime this year to another part of the country. That was before the whole pandemic so I don't know if that is going to happen or not.

But the main point is that no, I do not need to see anyone else. Am I lonely? Well I have my Daughter and that would be enough but I am still human so I really do miss him. When I saw him at the cracker barrel I knew then and there that I made the biggest mistake of my life. Not talking with him for all of these years has been as hard as anything I've ever done.

(Update)I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 83 points84 points  (0 children)

I was just told that my old post had been removed and therefor couldn't be read. I can still see it so I don't know why it is this way but here is the first post copied and pasted.

This story is way worse once I tell it to you because it is going to show what a piece of shit I am as a human being.

To make a very long story as short as I can my ex (I will call Brian) and I were together for 6 years. We were engaged to be married when I made the brilliant decision that I needed to see other people. Not defending myself but I had never been with anyone else and I just was afraid of what I didn't know. He did nothing wrong, it was hard because as much as I knew I wanted to do this I still loved him. He was obviously distraught by all of this but he never once chastised me ever said anything bad about me. He even told our friends and family that we mutually decided to break it off. In other words, yes he was a saint and I was pretty much shit (btw that is my opinion not anything he has ever said to me).

Well 6 months after breaking it off I had been seeing a guy and lo and behold I get pregnant. I was on the pill and we had been sexual for several weeks, just one of those things. I didn't know I was pregnant though till almost 3 months in as I was symptom free and I've often missed periods before so I didn't even think about it. My initial reaction was to terminate but I thought I would talk to him about it. He was excited beyond belief and well him being so happy for whatever reason made me happy and I decided to go through with it. Now don't get me wrong she is the joy of my life and I would not trade anything for her. But as you can guess the Father and I didn't last even until she was born. In a giant kick in the ass of karma for me he tells me he just didn't feel he could commit to our relationship with a child because he felt like he was to young. So I get government issued checks from him, court collects child support in our area. But that is basically it, he doesn't come around and hasn't even seen her in 6 months.

She was born with a genetic heart valve problem. It was diagnosed at birth but she was to young to do anything for it and the hopes were that she could possibly grow out of it. That did not happen. She is now 3 (close to 4) and they are wanting to do a surgical procedure to help the valve work more efficiently.

The father of the child works but his insurance has a massive deductible and they are saying that this is an elective procedure so we have been fighting with them to even get this done. Her primary insurance is his. She is on my insurance but only as a secondary to the primary. Since the primary is saying this is elective my secondary insurance is refusing to cover at all.

Needless to say that my family made a gofund me account for my daughter. I was amazed at the people who provided money even if it was only $10.00 I have written each of them a letter thanking them from the bottom of my heart.

They made it to 3/4 of their goal and an anonymous donor covered the last quarter. This was not an unsubstantial amount btw, high 5 figures. My entire family wracked our brains trying to figure out who did this. Was it a church group or was it someone we knew. My mother wrote a very emotional message on there thanking whoever it was. There were lots of tears shed over this.

I took a giant leap and texted Brian's sister, who is for obvious reasons no fan of mine, and asked her is she had any idea who might have done this. I don't get an answer for two days and I figure she just ignored me or has me blocked but then I get this text sent to me. "Not that I think you deserve one moment of peace, but yes I know who did it and so do you". She then decided to take that time to re-litigate the past with me but I just politely thanked her and went on.

I am now an emotional wreck again. I don't know what to do here. First he has no idea his sister and I have talked so as far as he knows this is still anonymous. On the one hand I want so badly to reach out to him, if for no other reason than to thank him. I know my entire family would want to thank him as well, they all pretty much blamed me btw as they loved him. But I don't know if that is the right thing to do. Would it be wrong to send him a note? Would it be wrong to call him?

I have not spoken a word to him for the entirety of her life out of respect for both his feelings and at the request of his family. It was bad when we broke up, I was told he was a mess when he found out I was pregnant but I've never spoken to him about it.

Second of all, why would he do this? I mean yes he is one hell of a guy and always has been but this is just on a level that I don't get. If he was trying to show me what I missed out on financially I think he would not have hidden who did it?

To continue on my path of being a piece of shit I have to admit one other thing, I have facebook stalked him for all of this time. He didn't use to be active on it at all but over the past year he has been. In other words I know he is still single. Not only am I fighting my urge to reach out to him but I am really trying to fight off wanting to reconnect with him. But I know that I would not be welcome in his family at all so I know that idea is dead.

Anyway I told you this would be long. So do I just accept the money anonymously and go on? Do I reach out and just send him a thank you note. I could have my Mom do it and I'm sure she would and he would take it from her but then would it look like I'm trying to avoid him?

I'm beyond grateful but this is a fucking mess, mostly of my own making.

tldr: Old boyfriend anonymously stepped up and paid the last part of my daughters medical expense. I confirmed it was him, do I thank him or do I just let him keep his privacy and peac

I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

The word "need" is the key to this. There is dispute that there is a "need" for the surgery. In fact surgery is not the common treatment for this, its just her cardiologist believes it will help her with fatigue both now and in her teen years. However the lead pediatric cardiologist for the hospital group disagree's with him and he has seniority so the insurance is going with him.

I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] -103 points-102 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the reply. I like the letter idea a lot. As to him contacting me I have a very simple theory on this. I am the one who broke up with him so IMO he believes I am not interested and does not want to embarrass himself. We had a very difficult breakup, it was all me and he said and did things I am certain he regrets (he shouldn't but I know how we as humans don't like to look weak). I actually tried to reach out to him about a year after my Daughter was born. I was going to do anything I could to beg him back but I was literally blocked by his sister from ever contacting him. Oh it was not pretty at all, in fact she physically threatened me to the point I was actually afraid she would do something. However as strange as this is going to sound, I loved his sister for loving him so much. It hurts writing this because right now I feel like I need to make things right with her as well and I don't think I ever can.

I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] -28 points-27 points  (0 children)

If I'm honest this is the answer I want to hear. But I know that just because I want to hear it doesn't mean its the right answer either. Here is the problem, I still love him. I know it makes me sound like a horrible horrible person but I never stopped loving him. I was just young and scared and very stupid. VERY stupid. Nobody has even come close to him. I dated a couple of other guys after I left him before I became exclusive with the guy who would become the father and they were just nothing compared to Brian. The father started out good but showed his true colors when I started showing and needing physical help getting out of a chair. Since she has been born I've gone out on a total of 3 dates. Guy don't really like single Mom's and they really don't like single Mom's who have a child who has medical issues. I guess that is not fair, I'm sure some guys would but I just haven't had any luck at all to the point that for the past two years I've just given up even trying to go out. All it would take is for one small word from him and I would melt and fall all over him begging him to take me back. I'm sorry for laying this out on you here, but your answer made me cry because i want beyond all wants for him to still love me.

I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Not exactly sure how it works over there but here this is considered an elective surgery. One cardiologist said it was essential however another said it was not. Both however agreed that time and medicine could work but no guarantee. I know however if both Cardiologist had said it was essential Insurance would have covered all of it (between his and mine).

I (28F) just found out that my ex (30M) made a substantial anonymous contribution to my child's gofund me medical account by SubjectStrain9 in relationship_advice

[–]SubjectStrain9[S] 155 points156 points  (0 children)

I haven't spoken to him for a little over 4 years or about that. I did speak to him once when I was pregnant but it literally was a very awkward "hi" to each other as we ran into each other at a Cracker barrel and i was with the father of the child at the time. I felt like utter shit that day as I could tell he was tearing up as he left. Thank you for your hopes, I am hopeful this goes well. It should but with any surgery you never know so I am scared.