Hither and yon

No one is in charge of your happiness, except you.

I think sometime before I was in first grade I remember my dad and mother having a horrendous fight. My dad was a very quiet, gentle man. This one time however my dad was beyond mad. I don't remember what had happened and perhaps I never really did know. Dad came home and was very very angry, yelled and actually hit my mother. I can remember screaming NO! Daddy, NO! They were both on the floor yelling and hitting each other. After that dad, left, and mother went to work as a waitress. I can remember being shuffled off to a different friend's house about every week. It was so common I stopped asking where we were going. My brother and I just accepted going to a different house every night as the normal course of events. I don't remember seeing much of my mother during the time she had us. At some point my mother realized she could not take care of us, work and drink too, so she gave full custody of my brother and me to our dad. He didn't know what to do with two little kids, an eight year old and 4 year old. He asked around and there were friends that wanted to adopt us, dad wasn't interested in that and I was glad. Our aunt and uncle said they would take me, but could not take my brother (they already had six children). Dad didn't want to split my brother and I up. So he found St.Joseph's Orphanage.