For 25 years, I lived with the mystery of my mother’s sudden disappearance, but one day my grandmother showed up years later and revealed the heart-wrenching truth behind her departure.

Growing up, I always knew my story was different. My dad was a single father who raised me alone. From the moment I was born, it was just the two of us. He often told me about the early days, but from the look on his face, his entry into fatherhood held both painful and joyful memories.

My mother, for reasons we never fully understood, decided she wasn’t ready for motherhood just days after my birth. She wouldn’t feed me or even hold me. Despite the sudden change, my dad still hoped things would change and thought that it might be postpartum depression or a phase.Unfortunately, my mother never changed her mind. She left the hospital without looking back, but what was odd was the sadness in her eyes. My father remembered a very distraught look on her face when she looked over me before finally leaving, so her departure left him with many questions.