Coach~~~ I can see how you would wonder about these things. It wasn't as cut and dry as all that though.

Birthdays abd Holidays......

We met after Christmas and only days before New Years. We didn't spend that holiday together, at the time I didn't know if I would ever really see him again. He did call on New Years though. we did spend Valentine's Day together. My daughter's Birthday is at the end of Feb, though he didn't come up for that he did get her gifts and took us out to dinner the next time he was up to celebrate. My Birthday is in March, we were together then. His Birthday is in June, we were together for that. During the Fourth of July we were on a week and a half vacation together. He was here for part of Labor Day weekend. He got 'called out of town for work' for Thanksgiving. (now I know that to be a lie.) but called often. We spent Dec 20 - 23 together. I took him to the airport to spend Christmas in Atlanta with his family, mother, father, etc. I was invited to go along but I think that only came about because he knew I would want to be with my family. He was there until the 29th (anniversary) when I picked him up at the airport and he stayed until the first. Not only did we have all this time together but he was often up, or we went away, or I even went down there. No I didn't want to stay with him. He had a house full of teens and pre-teens and I a six year old. I was more than happy to be in a hotel!!!

Meeting friends and family members:

I knew the two women in his office and talked to them often. When I was in Nc, I would go to his work and we'd go out to lunch. I also knew three of the men that traveled with him on business from time to time. Most of his family lives in Atlanta or farther, he said they didn't get along well and told me issues from his past. I really believed that because he seemed so genuinly happy to be around my family who took him in. He said they were like a family he had never known.

I honestly didn't want to get to know the people that lived with him. Some of the things he said sounded horrid. I did send the children gifts on their Birthday's though. we went Christmas shopping for them when he was here as well. I had talked to them on a few occasions when I had called the house for him and they answered, not in detail though, only to ask for him or leave a message.

In hindsight I'm sure that there were things that maybe I should have caught onto but it wasn't as I think you had thought before. The world needs cynics just as much as it needs saps, looks like we fit the bill.