Doesn’t change my mind; you put the kids first and that’s what matters. Moreover, you did the adapting and that relieved both your children of a burden they were not ready to handle.

Like you, my mother had a violent child. When she could not protect me from my sister any longer, she sent me to live with my uncle. It was the most selfless act I’ve ever witnessed.

Like my mother, I suspect you imagined a different future than the one you lived. That future my mother once imagined hung over her, like a dark cloud, for the rest of her life.

I was not burdened by an imagined future, and saw our lives very differently. Instead of a lost dream, I imagine what my sister would have done and become, if my mother had not done what she did. Mama lost her dream, but she saved a whole lot of people from harm. That’s my way, of saying thank you from someone who knows what you’ve accomplished.