A Lost Daughter

  
This page is simply a letter to my daughter, Casandra.

Several years ago, I made the mistake of allowing an extended visitation with your mother, on the assumption that she was doing much better and had gotten over hating me.

To this date, I am not sure what happened after that.  All I know is that upon returning from a two-week at-sea period with the Navy, I could no longer contact either her or you.  A couple of years and several thousand dollars in investigator fees later, I was told that you were probably in Missouri and that there was no hope of actually finding either of you.

By now, you are a grown adult, capable of making your own choices.  I have made sure that I am easy to find and contact.  Whatever dispute your mother and I had is now history, as you were the only link between us.

I do not know what you have been told about me.  Your mother probably believes most of it, true or not, and told you what she thought was best for you to believe.  Regardless of what she may have said, or even believed, please know that you have always been in my heart and prayers.

This is not a request, but rather an invitation to contact me.  No conditions, no promises.

You are, as I stated before, an adult by now.  I cannot and will not ask that you choose between your mother and I.  She had her reasons, which probably seemed good to her at the time, for doing what she did.  So did I.  All of them are now moot.  We are long past the point of being able to hurt each other, and I truly hope that she has found happiness.

Whatever your decision, I wish you well and hope that you are happy.

Your father,

John Paul Barelli
jbarelli@barelli.org