‘Home, Where our Story Begins’

#sixwordstory –  ‘Life has ways of surprising you.’

As a child, my dad was always there supporting me and I was a daddy’s little girl. He used to give me everything I would ask for but always taught me right from wrong. Having a strict dad meant I always missed out on big events and parties because he wouldn’t let me go out with my friends when he was not there with me. As I got everything I wanted, I never complained because I always had my dad by my side. When I turned thirteen, everything changed and my mum and dad started to argue and tried to hide it as much as possible. Having an older brother helped me out with these confusing times because he was always there for me, right by my side. This was beneficial because the arguments started getting worse between my parents. My dad started staying out later each night but also was sleeping on the sofa most nights and sometimes not coming back until the morning after. Throughout this period of my life, I didn’t really have many trustworthy friends so I had to experience all of this alone. Months went on and nothing really changed. My brother started to become more upset about something but I couldn’t quite understand why. The arguments were getting harder to ignore and I could hear them both arguing throughout the night and shouting at each other. Finally, one night, my brother had gone out and I had to stay at home listening to my parents arguing and by this time, it was a regular occurrence. My brother had been going out a lot more because he wanted to get out of the house. I was sitting in the lounge watching my favourite programme at the time and my parents were in the kitchen. They started arguing really badly and screaming at each other. Then my dad went upstairs for something but I didn’t know what it was at the time. He came back downstairs and then shouted at my mum and I heard my mum say ‘if you leave, you will never be able to come back’. He then left through the front door and he never came back. My family household has always been different after that day, I guess life has ways of surprising you.