5 years today

Today was a hard day for us. It marks the 5 year anniversary of the death of Dusty father. On this day in 2004, Leon took it upon himself to commit suicide. He and Charity had moved back in together just to share a place. Not to get back together as a couple. But something changed Leon. He had his boy back and he found out that he really loved Charity. But Charity was done and once she figured out that living with Leon wasn't healthy for her and Dusty, she moved out. This devastated Leon and threw him into total depression. Add that to drinking alcohol and pills and you have a recipe for disaster. He went out to the shed and hung himself. Some say that they believe that somewhere in the middle of it, he changed his mind. The person who found him and went to get help said he seemed to be struggling as if he was trying to save himself. At any rate, his selfish actions left a small child empty and so all alone. The one thing I will say about Leon, he would do things with Dusty like play outside go fishing or camping. After he died, Dusty was lost because Gary and Charity wasn't going to do anything with him.

Dusty didn't mention it at all today. I didn't say anything either. Wasn't sure how he would feel. I've always tried to let him begin the conversation about his parents. We do talk more about his mom than his dad. It's really sad to think that this young child was left to travel life's dusty roads without his parents here to travel along.