Her father is going to her convention, but I'm not. I know this hurts her and it makes me feel sick on so many different counts. I have a good reason not to go, it's 2 weeks before graduation and I really don't have time even to be writing this. I didn't use that as an excuse though. I feel horrible. For not being there, for raising her this way, because even though she knows the crap that's gone on in our family and by extension the congregation, she's still making this decision, for adding another wall between her and my husband and me, because they think I'm dead meat and I would have thought the same a few years ago. I can't go back there. Not for her or him. She's 28, she put the decision off for a long time but recently has found a social circle at her hall and I suppose she was "encouraged" to get with the program.
I told her that I understood her decision, and that all I asked was that she keep her eyes and mind open. See what you see my darling. And I told her that since the majority of her family is not active any longer (in fact, her dad is the only one left) that if she ever changed her mind, she didn't have to fear being shunned by her family at any rate. I hope she'll think about that as she's pressured to avoid contact with the rest of us now.