'The Father I Could Never Have'

THERE are times when ignorance really is bliss, because some facts are just too painful to bear.

- Robert Clunie

“I WAS young when my parents separated and I never understood or asked the reason behind their separation. My mother raised me on her own. I never saw my father, but people told me that I look exactly like him. I remember asking my mother about his whereabouts – she never told me anything, so I decided that I should look for him.

I was 16 when I set out to find him, but my mother wouldn’t help me. I asked my uncle James to find out where he lives or works, because James used to tell me that they grew up together.