Magazine A Praça Town Square - November/December 2024

BoasFestas

NOVEMBER 15TH

A Cada Passo, a Cada Conquista,

• Serviços bancários para particulares e empresas

• Soluções de crédito

• Produtos com base no capital próprio da casa

• Taxas competitivas

• Soluções hipotecárias personalizadas

• Programas para compradores da primeira casa

• Habitação e automóvel

• Vida e saúde

• Cobertura de empresa

• Reforma

• Serviços de fundos

• Planeamento patrimonial

THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF LIFE

THE UC DIFFERENCE

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PROGRAMS TAILORED TO YOUR NEEDS

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> Prior Learning Assessment

> Trades

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WHO WE SERVE

> High School Students

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> Teachers & Educators

> Leaders & Professionals Seeking Advancement

> Military Personnel

WILL I OR WON’T I

I FINALLY FEEL LOVE

At the clam-bake with friends the rain clouds faded from my life. I felt our recent marriage and life with four children (two for each of us) we could get to know each other melded together becoming a “Brady Bunch” family living together in love. It didn’t work out that way.

After 12 years my wife, three days before Christmas, told me she wanted a divorce. My two children, ages nine and seven, were upset. She ran away with her boyfriend Sam on 12/26.

Sam left his wife and kids for his “girlfriend.” My X. She bluntly told me that our two children, ages nine and seven will live with me full time. She’ll tell me when she takes them away. “It’s my turn” she harshly stated!!, never to see her again. I and my children had been terribly traumatized, dumped in the filthy trashcan of abandonment and psychic pain. We all cried and hugged each other.

We kept our pain and trauma to ourselves. After a few months Jolene said she thought as a family we should continue as before. Our family began functioning well again.

After a year of silence, she rudely reappeared with no smile. She told us that both kids were going home with her. Our children belonged with her and her new husband. Jolene and I had been blindsided and outraged. She gave us a week to get them ready. My children decided, after a lot of talking against my wishes, they decided to live with their mother.

Again, I survived my feelings, fears, abandonment, pain. Jolene, also shocked, loved and held me through the difficulties day and night. Her two daughters were also very upset. With time I saw my biological children

less and less but became closer to her two girls.

Our reconstructed family blossomed. One evening the youngest, Christine, five years old, said “Daddy can you help me?” Everyone froze. I said, “Of course.” We put the dishes on the table. In this one simple question she shifted the perception of my role in her family, from step-father to daddy.

Over the years our family bond continued to strengthen. We worked together caring for each other, our vegetable garden, and our animals and our vacations. As time passed, the concept of “dad” never changed.

Twelve years after our wedding, our oldest daughter, Sarah, age 18, gave me a self-made Christmas present, its meaning and depth of love startled me. She, her sister, and my wife took me to a courthouse. I was confused. The judge gave me papers, all signed by him in his office, and I was now legally her father. I hugged all three, then we went out for lunch. At lunch Christine told us she wants me to be her daddy too.

I am now legally their father which I will always cherish. It’s 43 years since Jolene and I jumped off that cliff of fear into the unreadable sea of marriage with our children.