I was reading the Blog by Rhianwen and it reminded me of My Parents divorce! It was a tough time for us.

I remember as a kid my parents never really got along and they never had what you call a Warm relationship.
My dad was found drinking most of the evenings and watching TV and mum was not a working woman, so was generally found in the kitchens cooking or cleaning.

Dad would always find fault with mum's cooking and cleaning and with her in general. Mum would remain silent but definitely angry.
I remember as a kid I just never felt close to dad it was like he was there or not. Didn’t matter.

I was scared of him though 'cause he would beat us up when he was drunk and if we made a mistake like break a glass or make some noise.
Mother took up a job when I was around 8 years old because she wanted to be independent of Dad (he gave her very little money to buy us new clothes or books and also run the house in it)

I remember one day mum had to almost beg and fight with dad to get us new winter clothes because we had outgrown our older ones and he finally got one cardigan for me and one for bro.
My Dad hated it when mum took up work and he started accusing her of being unfaithful and things went downhill to the extent he threw her out along with us one summer and we had to stay a month with Mum's Sister.

He later came home calling her back since my grandmother passed away, but that didn’t make him treat us any better.
One night after a few drinks he beat up my mother and she cracked a bone and had a few bruises, mum took us and ran from home at midnight to file a complaint against him and we spent one entire night sleeping in a old Suzuki car.

We came back home next morning when we were sure dad was out at work.
Things never improved and shouting, yelling, beating never stopped. Finally Dad told mum to get out and take the kids too..
Mum had no choice so one day when dad was at work mum packed our clothes and a few possessions and left.

We lived in a small flat and it was so silent after dad's house -no screaming, no shouting and no crying.
It was our first winter and we had no beds no blankets not many woolens and no stove to cook on or pots/pans utensils.
My Mother's friend helped, he got us blankets when to his shock he saw we were sleeping without much cover and shivering.

Mum's salary was so less it couldn’t pay anything besides rent.
She slowly worked her way to earn enough to pay for our education and afford to bring us up.
She had no lawyer (lawyers charge money) so the Divorce proceedings didn’t happen till 3 years later.

Dad refused to give her Alimony and only agreed to pay a meager sum for us (which he stopped paying when we turned 18)
Mum in the mean time fell in love with the friend who helped us through years(he was married) and that's caused her a lot of heartache and tore us to see her emotionally drained.

I managed to finish my 12th Grade and never really could finish my education since we were as usual in financial mess and started working since i was 21(used to work since 14 actually but that was simply pocket money not enough to support education).
Bro finished his education as most of Mother's savings went into funding his education and by the time i was ready for University there was hardly anyleft to pay my fees.

I still want to complete my education but the financial mess just doesn’t end. I don’t earn enough to be 100% independent and I need to have another person supporting ( in this case it's my brother) and he has his own personal set back and is in a emotional mess phase.

My own ex-Boyfriend couldn’t digest my background (Divorced women in India are treated like characterless women who people can have no strings sex with and her children are deemed to be without morals)
Life's tough at times but It's got its own lovely parts. I know one thing for sure after losing and getting hurt so much I still love life and I know I have a lot of love inside to share, just that not everyone understands.. But hey that’s life!!