Diane Worthington’s older brother left without explanation, leaving his wife and 14-month-old son behind. This caused anger and concern for Worthington’s mother, and his wife, who later divorced him and left town with her nephew. The brother was irresponsible and selfish, leaving without any explanation.
Worthington wished she was more proactive in keeping in contact with the brother’s ex-wife and nephew, but she was incredibly saddened and embarrassed by his behavior. Her mom had to live with that fact that her son, the little boy that she raised and loved, had abandoned his wife, son, and entire family, and this ashamed her.
About 20 years later, the family was able to reconnect with the brother almost the same way that they lost him, surprising and suddenly. One day he was still gona and the next day Worthington’s mother received a call from her son’s boss, allowing them to find him. Most of her family eventually forgave him, but it was a difficult road for Worthington’s family to get to the point of forgiveness.
Worthington looked up to her brother, as any little sister would, and thought that he could do no wrong. When he vanished she was shocked to say the least. She had been abandoned, and not just her but her entire family. What was even more shocking to her was that after 2 decades of im being gone, when Worthington no longer had hope to find him, they received a call telling them exactly where he was.
Mr. Worthington(left), the brother, and Diane Worthington(right) spend time together after over 2 decades of no contact. When he came back after vanishing for over 20 years, Diane was overjoyed at being able to see and spend time with her older brother again.
As Worthington says, “He was about 22 at the time, and he left one day. He was married and had a son and he just left to go to the store, and he didn’t come home, he didn’t come back, no explanation. He left his wife and his son was about 14 months old at the time.”
Worthington said that her brother just randomly left one day. No explanation, no indication that this was going to happen. Worthington remembers feeling like this was worse than him dying, because she had no closure for what had happened to her older brother.
“It was a big problem for my mom because she was really worried about him and you know, didn’t know what was going on. It was a giant problem for his wife, she ended up having to divorce him in the newspaper, and then after that, she just left town with my nephew. In fact, went all the way across the country, and didn’t want to see or have anything to do with our family after that. It was very irresponsible of him to do that, it’s very selfish. I just think he was just coping with real life and just decided that maybe the grass was greener someplace else.” (Worthington).
This caused many problems for their family, not only losing contact with her brother but, in the midst of their grieving and heartbreak, they lost the only connection that they still had to him, his son. His wife moved across the country and never wanted to speak to anyone in Worthington’s family again. Everyone was devastated by this one decision that he made. One person’s actions can affect so many around them and this affected everyone involved negatively.
“I have no idea why he did this. I guess I think he just you know there were responsibilities, he had a house, he had a family, he had a kid, and he decided that was just too much, and so he ran off. Me and my sisters felt really bad for my mom because you know it was her kid that had done this and she was upset and I know we got real protective of her.”(Worthington)
Worthington and her sisters didn’t leave much time for them to grieve. That time had to be spent taking care of their mother, who had just seen her perfect little boy hurt so many people. Imagine the person that you trusted more than anything and thought was the greatest person to ever walk the Earth hurt you in a way you could never have imagined. This pain continued for Worthington’s family for over 2 decades until one day, the unexpected happened.
“On the eve of my sister’s wedding, my grandmother passed away, and my mother was called by my brother’s boss. We had searched for him forever, and after 20 years, we found him. He had been injured in an accident and his boss had called his emergency contact, my mom. we went out to try to find him and, after 20 long years, were reconnected. Forgiving him seemed easy, even if we didn’t have all the answers. We are so happy he wants to be part of our family again” (Worthington).
Worthington’s story proves that forgiveness is possible. Relationships can be prepared. You just have to put in effort. If they had held bitterness or resentment in their hearts for him leaving, their lives could’ve been so different when they got that phone call. But they continued to love him even after he hurt them, adn they eventually were happy to see him again. Forgiveness is necessary for life, holding on to anything that hurts you will cause you more pain. Sometimes you need to forgive someone, even if they havent apologised or don’t deserve it, forgiving someone can take that weight off of you. Live life to the fullest and forgive others, it will help you in the end.
