Like others here, my non-JW relatives accepted me and never brought up the past. It was hard for me to believe that I might survive the world's greatest cataclysm and most of the people I loved would not. That kind of thinking made it hard for me to do anything else but keep my distance while I was a JW.
The best outcome of all is that my daughter and I have a close, normal relationship again as we did when she was small. I left her dad and the JW's when she was 7 years old. Her dad did everything possible to keep her away from me physically and emotionally. He told me to go away and forget about her. He accused me of things that never happened. He told her things that were entirely inappropriate for a child to hear. But she always had some kind of innate wisdom that prompted friends of mine to say she must be an "old soul." I feel very fortunate and greatly blessed to have all of my family back, especially my daughter.
My granddaughter, who just celebrated(!) her 12th birthday. She has never been exposed to the JW religion, and she is very confident and happy, involved with school politics, orchestra, Little League baseball, and other normal activities. The only time she hears the words "Kingdom Hall" is when my daughter jokingly threatens her with a trip to the Kingdom Hall as punishment or to make her appreciate what she has.
Don't give up on anyone. Miracles happen every day.
Don't ever think we get tired of your posts, but I think Simon has a limit on posts per day.
Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow. - Horace
I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. - Dorothy Dix
