The Holidays No One Wanted
As soon as December arrives people all around me start planning for Christmas. Decorations must be set up, gifts must be bought, and the food needs to be planned for.
Even though there is so very much to prepare for, most people seem happy. Christmas music is playing from every speaker in every store, and children and adults are smitten by the Christmas spirit. And every year I try my best to put my Christmas mask on, to not ruin it for everyone else.
Allow me to give a bit of backstory for context
When I was around 8 years old, I was taken from my mother and put into foster care. Not because I was a fucked up child, but because my mother was a drug addict. Someone made an accurate observation and from that penned an official decision: The boy can’t stay with his mother.
I can’t believe that it took someone eight years to come to that conclusion. But that is how I feel today. Back then I was eight and I loved my mother. I didn’t know of anything else, and if I’m being honest, all my friends lived in similar circumstances. It was normal, for me.
Didn’t I have any relatives or family that could have taken me in? I did, I had probably about 10–12 uncles and aunts, grandparents and of course my father. I’m sure all of them had very valid reasons to not take me in at the…
