My Dad Gave up His Engineering Dreams and Worked Construction After Mom Disappeared – after His Death, I Learned Where She Really Went

He nodded toward the doll in my arms.

“I already got mine.”

Whenever I complained that he worked too much, he kissed the top of my head.

“You’re worth every sore muscle, Daddy’s Bug.”

My real name was Nell Hale, but that nickname felt like home.

By the time I finished college, Dad’s back was bent and two of his fingers no longer closed properly. I promised I would move him somewhere better. I promised him a trip to the ocean because he had never seen it.

“You’ve got time,” I told him.

I believed it.

Then, when I was twenty-five, he began losing weight.

By the time I got him to a doctor, the cancer had already spread.