This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, another story from our regular contributor from Codiac Island in Alaska,

Leslie Leland Fields. Today, Leslie shares a deeply personal story entitled, Forgiving My Worthless

Father. Take it away, Leslie.

Music I never called my father worthless.

That was his own word for himself.

But in a way, he was right.

Yeah. But in a way, he was right. I was on the phone with him.

He had had a stroke.

I told him I was flying down to see him from my home in Alaska to a rehab facility in Florida.

I'll be seeing you in about three weeks, I said to him.

I spoke loudly and tried to make my voice cheerful to infuse some kind of joy into his life.

And that's when he said it.

I'm not worth it.

Of course you're worth it.

I answered back instantly.

But, you know, in some ways, he wasn't wrong.

And the whole human balances of justice and fairness, he hadn't done anything to deserve this kind of sacrifice and attention from his children.

He couldn't or wouldn't hold a job, which left us deeply impoverished and ashamed throughout our childhood.

Our food was sparse. Our homemade clothes were worn out. We got one pair of shoes a year. All that.

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