My father had three daughters in a marriage before I was born. He and his first wife split in the mid 70s when those children were aged 20-25. They didn’t want much contact with him, only a few letters and birthday cards form one of them over the years. He met and married my mum a few years later and I was born, I never met any of them, but he always spoke about them.
He died two years ago, and going through his stuff recently, I found loads of their childhood photos, from when they were babies, up until their parents split. I didn’t want to get rid of them, so I tracked two of them down on social media and messaged them, saying who I was and that I would like to post them the photographs.
They both responded saying yes please, thier mum had died a decade ago and they would love them. She had early onset dementia and destroyed everything when she was ill, so they had nothing left. They didn’t ask anything about me or my dad, which I understand. They are in their 70s now and it’s been a long time. I did tell them where he was buried and when he died,
I had a few back and forth messages with them both, sent the photos to which the one I sent them to messaged thanks, we received them.
Then I found myself blocked by both of them.
I wasn’t expecting some big, tearful meeting, or for them to have any interest in me or my dad. But I’m so fucking alone, my father was my only family, and for a couple of days there, I’d hoped that maybe we would stay in touch. They have children who are around my age. I feel so stupid, they owe me nothing. But I’m just really sad about it and now I feel more alone than ever.
I’ll get over it, but it fucking stings.