When we hear that a parent has abandoned their baby, we usually assume it‘s a father. Most of us would never think a mother could abandon her husband and her newborn child and just leave to look for a better life. However, this story proves it is unfortunately possible. It is about a dad and a daughter who were left behind by the mom.
The young father‘s name is Richard Johnson, and his life turned upside down in January 2015. Richard was gloriously happy because his precious daughter Persephone was born a month before. Then suddenly, his joy turned into a nightmare.
One day, his wife took Persephone and ran away to California with her. When the heartbroken man finally found them and contacted his wife, she threatened to put up Persephone for adoption unless Richard immediately retrieved her. The reason for this crazy behavior was postpartum depression.
The anxious dad took his daughter and brought her back home. Richard has never raised a child before and faced nothing, but uncertainty. He had no idea how to take care of a baby and how to raise a girl as a single father. He found support and help where he least expected – on Facebook.
He came across a page called Life of Dad that showcased lives of other single fathers. When he saw how many other men were raising their children alone, he got really inspired.
Recently, Richard shared his journey as a single father with his support group on Life of Dad. His story, as well as the responses to it, are probably some of the most heartwarming things ever. Here is what Richard said about his parenting experience:
“Life of Dad,
My name is Richard Johnson, and I’m a single father to a beautiful little girl named Persephone. Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don’t know exactly why, but we suspect postpartum depression played a part. In the first few weeks of it being just her and me, I stumbled upon your page by accident. I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles. I wasn’t sure I could do it.”
“I had read every ‘new parent’ book I could find and clocked in over 1,000 hours in YouTube videos from everything to braiding hair and painting nails to theories on how to deal with common parental issues. I then started to watch your page more closely and saw that there were other fathers out there who were in similar predicaments as me.”
“The page started to turn into a major confidence booster and really helped me through all of this.”
“We’re both very happy now and continue to grow together every day. She’s now 10 months, and I now get asked by my friends for parenting advice constantly. We’ve come a long way, my daughter and me, and we definitely owe part of that to this page and the people within it. So from both of us, we wanted to thank you.
Sincerely,
Persephone & Richard Johnson”
We are so happy that Persephone has such a wonderful father who takes the best care of her and loves her with all his heart!
