08/24/2025
Claire: "It's best if you don't visit right now. My husband says it's not healthy for the baby to be around. He doesn't want him thinking being a single mom is normal."
I sat in silence. I raised Claire alone since she was three. No calls and no child support from her father. I worked two jobs, skipped meals, sewed her prom dress by hand, and signed every Father's Day card. And now, all of that — every sacrifice — was reduced to a warning label. A bad example. I was crushed.
My daughter needed a sign from the Universe to stop that.
All I said was, "Understood." I hung up, wiped away tears, walked to the nursery where I'd been stashing gifts for the baby, and packed them all up.
And the next day, I finally took it all away. But not to my daughter's house— to a completely DIFFERENT place.