A family that’s divided, with many miles between. Keeping that bond together, well it takes everything. You give up all your summers, to spend them far away. You deal with separation, and loneliness day by day. You hope for something different, for your children’s life’s instead. But life has a different plan, than the one that’s in your head. So now we have done it, brought this pain to my own. Every summer when I speak to them, I do so through a phone. Two months I’m on my own, all I can do is worry. How are they doing? Are they ok? Will the be fine without me? But the worries that I have, are only part of the problem. Because I can never remove, all the pain that I have brought them. A family that is divided, just like when I was a boy. I’m so sorry to my children, all I wished for you was joy. I know you will survive it, a childhood like mine. And hopefully forgive me, and your mother in due time.