When I Was Four, My Mother Left Me Alone in a Church—Twenty Years Later She Returned Crying, “We Need You”

My mother went along with his plan.

They moved to another state.

Started again.

Leaving me reduced their expenses.

And, according to one old letter Leo later found, made relocation easier.

I had not been abandoned purely to “give me a better life.”

I had been abandoned because keeping me made their escape harder.

That truth hurt.