Daddy, Don’t Leave Me
(Daddy’s Little Girl by Frankie J)
Gasping for air in the middle of the night, Hoda’s screams shook the house. Hoda’s parents rushed to her room in frenzy. With red puffy eyes, Hoda whimpered and looked up at her terrified father and threw herself in his arms. “Promise, daddy, that you will never leave me?”
But he did anyway, didn’t he?
Hoda’s parents had a huge argument that night. Hurtful words were exchanged between the struggling couple. They thought the children had gone to bed, but Hoda was wide awake. She heard it all—their plan to divorce, her mother’s demand for money, her father’s pleas to keep the family bond, her father’s threats to leave and disappear forever; her mother’s crying.
Hoda started having nightmares.
The months to come after the dark night are vague in her mind. All she remembers is her grandmother moving-in, her father moving-out and her recurring nightmares every night. She was now falling behind at school; her grades were poor. Nothing was the same.
She remembers her father coming back with uncles and aunts to reconcile, but with no avail. The divorce was inevitable. No matter how hard she prayed, worked on school work and did her chores. Their family was broken forever and now her daddy was leaving her.
Hoda blamed herself for the divorce. She remembers the last time she saw her father. It was a gloomy night. They met at her grandmother’s home. Her father had tried to convince her mother, one last time, to bring their family back together. But her parents started fighting once again. Her father stormed out of the house, angry.
Hoda rushed to the balcony, maybe she could fix this, it was her last chance. “He will surely come back for his little darling girl” she reasoned. As loud as she could scream, “daddy, daddy, daddy come back,” but he didn’t hear her. He walked away. He left his little girl to face the world all alone.
“Oh daddy why did you leave me, you promised?
**
I used to envy my friend Hoda in the fifth grade. Her parents had divorced earlier that school year. Somehow after her parents’ divorce she became the center of attention of every teacher and student. Teachers excused her tardiness and incomplete homework; suddenly, everyone wanted to be Hoda’s friend. I so wanted to be in Hoda’s place, someone ‘special.’ But how wrong was I to wish something so painful? I was only a foolish child to think of divorce as a game. Any child of a divorced household can see the pain in Hoda’s story, but isn’t divorce sometimes the best solution to a marriage gone bad. The implications of a negative household, on the children, is worse than the separation.
I pray that we stay strong in our families.
