Good morning everyone!!! Instead of turning this into another book, I will try to be short and to the point. Myself and 3 of my siblings are on the cover of my book “Scarred Healing and Moving Forward” but at the time the picture was taken my baby brother Billie wasn’t included. He was just an infant. Well time went on for both me and Bill and thanks to support from my wife Kimberly Malone-Pariseau as well as encouragement from two dear friends Corissa Mault-Boggs and Angee Allen, Bill and I were able to reunite around five to six years ago (thanks also to Ancestry). I didn’t know what to expect but while meeting my brother was exciting establishing that brotherly relationship proved to be impossible. After all we were both “damaged goods”. Bill and I did have some things in common though and that is we both embraced education and not only graduated high school but college as well. Bill was fortunate to be adopted and raised by the late Dan Houston and his wonderful wife Linda Strauss Houston. Both were, I believe, college professors. I remember telling Bill he was very fortunate to have been adopted by them. I thought before meeting Bill that he wouldn’t have been impacted by abandonment the way me and my other siblings were. I was wrong. Just like me he too was scarred emotionally. He and I may not be famous nor have we ever held 6 figure job salaries, but we succeeded by committing ourselves to graduating not only high school but college as well. I say commitment is something I am proud of because jokingly I would always say to my former comrade Corissa when she asked what I was doing later “I don’t want to look too far ahead”. Knowing my background and the social worker in her, Corissa often said “you don’t have abandonment issues you have commitment issues”. Success for me is that I have been able to make some commitments: in addition to graduating both high school and college, I have been with my wonderful wife Kim for at least 30 years which is a little over half my life and I was able to work in the Social work field for at least 29 years. My first job out of college was mentoring and working with male juvenile delinquents. I used the word “Healing” in the title of my book because in my opinion healing from emotional scars can be a lifelong process. I am now committed to owning or embracing my emotional scars and sharing with anyone who will listen how one can move on in life. We all deserve to be happy and enjoy life. I remember mom showing me a keep sake box she had for me when I was a young adult. In addition to ribbons for at least finishing and participating 😂, she had a receipt for seven dollars. That caught my attention and she said that is what it cost her and dad to finalize my adoption. I told her I hope her investment has increased in value 😂. Well my brother Bill passed away months ago and I will be attending his memorial this Saturday. Please RIP Bill. My attendance at his memorial will be that proverbial “closure”. Have a super day everyone and make valuable memories!!! “ “
A Personal Reflection: Healing, Commitment, and Closure
