Morarji Peesay

An excerpt from Absent-Father Syndrome: Overcoming the Trauma of a Fatherless Childhood. “I’ve sat face to face in front of many adults who were crying their eyes out,” says Rachel Norman, founder of A Mother Far from Home. “They needed healing tools and positive coping mechanisms. They had low self-worth, nonexistent boundaries, and a negative view of themselves.

The gap between the two of us was wide. The road was silent and had no traffic. I could feel deep, dusty feelings like winds blowing all around, and they dried up the tears on my face. In one of my dreams, my father just stood silently in my bedroom, staring at me with the same expressionless face he used to have. He could maintain perfect emotional silence. There was a vacuum, and the energy of this vacuum was too much to bear.