I wasn’t a good son. I was disrespectful. I was a loud mouth. I disagreed with a lot of the things my mom and dad said to themselves and me. I had anger problems that I would later come to realize while in college. I took a lot of my anger out on my mom and dad. And with my mom more active in my life during grade school I hurt her the most. She’s a strong woman but at the time she was fragile and I didn’t help. I made things worse.

But, oddly enough, I was the glue in my parent’s marriage. I was the one that called them out. I held them accountable to their ridiculous and out-of-line actions. My doing this I was out-of-line as I was forced to say sorry. Saying sorry for my actions was difficult. I said sorry just to move on from things.

Many years would pass.

By this time my mom and dad have been separated for some time. They are both happy now. Both my sister and I are very happy with how things ended up. We’re grateful and thankful that we still have loving parents even if they aren’t together.

Out of nowhere, one day (I seriously can’t remember when exactly this happened but I think it was right after college) my mom approaches me.

She said, “We should’ve listened to you more. I’m sorry we didn’t.”

It took the air out of the room. It took me by surprise because I was the one that said sorry and looking back I was the one out-of-line and disrespectful.

My mom didn’t get into any specifics. Still to this day we haven’t revisited this moment that left both of us silent and immediatly changing the subject.

It took a lot of courage for my mom to say that.

And mom, if you’re reading I never told you… “I’m sorry.”