My career advanced slowly at first, then more quickly when the children started school.

I took difficult assignments, completed additional training, and found colleagues who saw me as capable rather than inconvenient.

My children knew they had a father.

I did not invent a heroic story about him.

I also refused to teach them that his absence meant something was wrong with them.

When Noah asked why his father hadn’t visited, I told him I didn’t know what Daniel was thinking.

When Sophia asked whether her grandmother knew about them, I admitted I couldn’t say.