I haven’t heard from my father in years, and then, all of a sudden, he appeared at my doorstep, asking to move in with me and my wife. My answer? No, way, you either pay rent or get out! However, my story took a different turn later on.

When I lost my mother, I was still a teenager. My dad struggled to adapt to the role of a mom and a dad and things seemed fine for some time, but when I turned 18, he told me I needed to find a job and pay rent if I wanted to continue living in the house.

His words shocked me. I didn’t want to pay rent to my own father. “I’d rather stay in a dorm once I enrolled university than pay you rent,” I said, but then another shock followed. My dad said he couldn’t afford to pay my tuition, so if I was to attend university I had to either work or get a loan.

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None of that seemed like a good option, so I decided to leave home and never look back.

And now, after many years, he was there again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Son, I need help. I don’t have a place to stay,” he said.

Of course you can stay with me, but only if you pay rent,” I said. Those words seemed to be waiting to get out of my mouth, as if they had been trapped there for far too long.

“But I… I don’t have any money,” my dad said. “Then you are not welcome here,” I said, slamming the door.

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My wife stood right beside me, not able to comprehend my act.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, and that’s when I told her everything. But she still insisted there had to be more to the story. She told me that she was the one who reached out to my father, hoping she could help make things right between us. “I gave him the address,” she confessed. “Please try and make amends.”

I got angry at my wife and fled the house, hoping to catch some fresh air and clear my mind. As I was wandering through the park, I noticed my father sleeping on one of the benches, and that’s when my heart broke.

“Dad,” I said, trying to wake him up.

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When he saw me, his eyes lit up. We talked and he explained that he only asked me to pay rent back in the day because he wanted me to get productive following my mother’s passing. All I did back then was mourned her loss and stayed on the couch.

He never meant to get rid of me, he only wanted me to start my life over, but I was a teen and didn’t understand that.

I invited my dad to my place and told him he could stay for as long as he wanted. At the end of the day, he was family, and family is all about acceptance, forgiveness, and being there for one another.

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