Friday, August 5, 2011

Dear Belle

There are a lot of things I would like to say to this woman, but I know speaking to her directly, I would speak out of anger and rage for things I did not mention in this letter. But It makes me feel better that I can post this to the world. Maybe, someone will read it and be changed by it.

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Dear Belle,

I realize you do not know me, but I know of you. My name is Jasmine; I am the daughter of Frank. I understand that you are very angry right now, and believe me I have been angry for a very long time. My father has caused a lot of pain and hurt before I was even born, and unfortunately it continues today. I wish things did not get as far as they had, but you cannot change the past.

You are not the first girlfriend my father has had. He has had several, and each think the solution is to hurt his family by verbally attacking my mother. I do not know if this is how you think, and I am not accusing you of anything. I just would like you take a step back and look at the situation. You should have not gone to my father’s apartment or house even if you were at one time living there. Trashing the place was not the answer. If my father had called the police on you, things could have gotten increasingly worse. By you trashing the place you put yourself in jeopardy.

I understand you have a son. If my dad had called the cops you would have been arrested, and who knows what would have happened next. You could have lost custody of your son. And frankly, I do not understand why you would put yourself in a situation that could have ultimately affected your own son. I think you need to put your son first instead of acting upon your anger.

Acting on your anger is never the right thing to do. After all the hurt my father has put our family and my mother through, we continue to try to make things better. I know things do not always go according to plan, and maybe being in love complicated things even more, but everyone has to put the children first. The adults should not want us children to make the same mistakes.

This letter is not meant to anger you, or offend you. I am just asking you to let our family deal with our problems, so you can focus on watching your own son grow up. God forbid that your son ever does this to his wife and kids, but would you want his girlfriend to act the way you did that night, making things even more difficult? My father is working on himself; I pray to God this cycle ends. Thank you for reading this.

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If it weren't for God and my sister Cynthia, I might have lost it on this woman. I was fed up with people trying to hurt my family all because of my father's mistakes. His girlfriends never seemed to care how the situation affected me and my sisters, including the ones with children themeselves. It is shameful that any single mother would put their child in a situation where they could have been taken away from the mother. Just because a boyfriend hurt you, does not give you the right to play with your child's life.