Open Letter

Dear Dad,

You will never know how important having a father is in a young girls life.  She needs you to be there to tell her she’s beautiful, she needs you there to teach her that a man is suppose to love her, not hurt her.  You were supposed to be there to show me that a man is supposed to be a gentlemen. You were supposed to be my first love.  I should have been able to compare every man in my life to you.   Instead you weren’t and I had to learn the hard way.

I went thru countless relationships, looking for love and affection in all the wrong places.  Relationships that could have cost me my life.  Putting up with mental and verbal abuse, which I thought, was a part of someone loving you that was the way that they showed affection.  You argue to make up.  Yeah right!

  I had to suffer thru the ordeal of almost being molested by an adult male cousin.  Luckily I knew that the first chance I got to jump out the window and run home!  Instead of running home to a dad to say, “Don’t worry baby girl, I will take care of it,” I ran home to a single mother of five.  Who held me, while I cried, she cried and prayed.  Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful that my mother was there, but you have to understand that a girl longs for her dad, in a time such as that.

For years, I was angry and hurt, and I couldn’t understand why you weren’t there to protect me, to love me, and comfort me when needed.  Even though I was angry, I loved you with all my heart! I wrote you often, I had mom drive me four hours to visit you, only to be you for maybe a hour tops.  What in the world was that?

I said all of that to say this, FATHERS, DADS, POPS, whatever you are called, a little girl needs you in her life.  She needs you there to be her hero, her protector.  You should have so much influence in your daughters life, that no man in this world would be able to do her wrong.  Every guy that she dates should be compared to you.  You should be the best thing that ever happened to her.  Don’t make her long for love that she should already feel coming from you.

-COCO-