‘If I do really well in school, maybe my daddy will come back’

A reader recently reminded me of a story I told on His Side with Glenn Sacks a couple years ago, one of the saddest I’ve ever heard: “The secretary at another radio station where I used to do the show told me a story about her son. The father and the mother broke up when the boy was about four or five, and the father soon disappeared from the boy’s life. “When the boy started school, he always worked very hard and did all his homework and got good grades, even though his mother never pushed him to do well in school or to do his homework.
She didn’t have to push him–he always did it on his own. “One day when the boy was about nine the mother got curious about this. After all, most boys don’t take to school so well, and aren’t as conscientious about their studies. I know–I’ve lived it with my son for many, many years. “So at one point the mom asked the boy, ‘Why do you work so hard at school and do so well?’ “The boy looked at her and replied, ‘Well, I think if I do really well in school, maybe my daddy will come back.'”