In Reply to: Re: testimony posted by MG on October 22, 2003 at 00:29:34:
My dad died 12 years ago, I was still in the Family. He was someone I liked, he didn't get violent physically, but there was from time to time verbal abuse, but I didn't join the Family to get away from my parents, it wasn't until after I joined that they became the so-called true "Rebels". It's sick because it was Berg's indoctrination that turned me against my parents more that anything.
I'm going to share something that is very difficult for me to put into words, I haven't talked about this much with anybody: My dad was hospitalized in critical condition for about 2 weeks before he passed away. I was far way in a Fam. home in the south of Brazil. My sister called to let me know that he was probably about to die. I spoke to my mom as well a few times that next week. I thought if I should go there, then my mom will offer to pay for a ticket. I don't remember once thinking that I should really do as much as I can to get there. My leaders didn't think it was important. But I could and should have asked my mom and 2 sisters and 2 brothers, and they would have sent me a ticket. They had all gone to my mom's. (When you got your relatives to pay the travel expenses the leaders let you go home for a visit. There never was any money available that the home could give you for long distance travel, even when your mother or father was dying. That was out of the question.) A few years later I spoke with my older sister about my dad's death, and she told me something that still hurts: my dad couldn't communicate verbally those last days, she said sometimes he'd squeeze your hand just a bit. She was surprised he didn't go sooner, she said it was as if he was still waiting for something... I was the one who didn't come.