Heatherg, I know exactly what you mean. When my wife and I exited we felt as though we were in mourning. A big chunk of our lives had gone, but at least we were being honest with ourselves - which is more than can be said for Watchtower!
Ian
THE ESTRANGED FAMILIES LIST
by Dansk 117 Replies latest members private
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donkey
I have lost myself.
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moanzy
I have lost my mom and step-dad(except for their half hour stopin once a year to see grandkids). An older sister and her husband and my 2 nephews. 3 brothers and their wives and possibly kids. My eldest sister is missing due to this organization and does not wish to be found.-last seen living in Toronto, Ont Canada. Grandparents deceased(JW). 5 uncles and their wives along with 9 cousins.
Virtually my WHOLE family has been wiped out of my life because of this loving arrangement!!!!
The biggest tragedy in this whole thing is my eldest sister who is terribly lost in this world with absolutely nobody and is living in fear of anyone knowing where she is. Thankyou Oh great GB for doing this to my sister and our family.
Total loss: 28 plus FUTURE neices and nephews
Moanzy
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Gordy
In brief.
Due to my depression and attempted suicide, my JW wife was told by the Elders, that I would have to leave home, due to being a "spiritual danger" to the family, that was December 1996. Had to move to another town and congregation.
I was still allowed to visit to see my 7 children.
In August 1999 having learnt the "truth" about the WT I stopped going to meeting. But did not disassociate. So was able to continue to see family.
In all this time I did not get a single visit from any Elder. In September 2001 had visit from two elders, whose only intention was to get "inactive" ones back to make up the numbers. No concern for me or what I knew about the WT by then.
I therefore decided to Disassociate, I wrote the letter and sent it.
Later on I received a note from my JW wife saying that she and my two JW daughters, who are now 27 and 22 will now be allowed to have contact with me.
So for the passed four years I have not seen or spoken to either my JW wife or two JW daughters.
I have a son and daughter who also DA'd , a son who never was a JW.
My two youngest a son (17) and daughter (15) who live with their mother, have told her that they will never be JW's.
My oldest son (29) who is DA'd got married recently, his mother and sisiters refused to attend the wedding.
That is the situation at the moment.
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Dansk
(((((Moanzy)))))
Nice to meet you. I'm so sorry about the loss of so many of your family. I admire your courage and honesty!
(((((((Gordy))))))
Good to hear from you again! I'm sorry for your loss, too. Thanks for posting!
I think whoever coined the phrase "The Borg" - does anyone know who it was? - was spot on with their analogy. JWs really are members of a collective with their minds utterly controlled by the GB. If more JWs read the truth about Watchtower they would be stunned - but getting them to read anything is the problem. Having said that, as we were once in the same position, I am optimistic their eyes will one day soon be opened wide.
There will always be those who'll stick by the Borg no matter what, though. These are the most dangerous as they are beyond reason.
Please keep your experiences coming in, painful that they are. They give so much encouragement to others!
Love to all,
Ian
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love2Bworldly
My only family member who is a JW is my sister. For some strange reason she has been keeping in contact with me ever since my mother passed away in 1993. I miss my best friend Darla, friends from age 12-21 years, she was the light of my life then. Eventually my sister will stop speaking to me, because one of these days I'm going to blow up to her about all the BS I have learned about the WT and then she will learn that I am apostate.
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love11
Mother- Completely estranged for the past 7-ish years.
Father- Somewhat estranged, he occasionally goes to meetings now.
Three sisters and their families- estranged due to differences and past taught behavior, even though they are out of the jw's.
Good Friend- I grew up with and felt like we were sisters.
And all the faces I occasionally talked to all of my entire life.
My mother had a huge family 14 brothers and sisters and all of their families, none of which I know due to them not being a jw. Some still hold onto the beliefs that they were raised with even though they don't go anymore to the hall.
And any friends in school I met, I was never allowed to get too close to them because they were not a jw.
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CinemaBlend
Mine is fairly recent.
A couple of months ago my sister and brother-in-law informed my wife and I they could have no further contact with us, unless we wanted to accompany them to the meeting.
We've not spokent since. I tried to at first, emailed them like normal, tried to call them. But they weren't receptive, and mostly ignored me. Or sat there stonily but politely until I went away.
Then a couple of weeks ago, after recieving horrible, hateful, disgusting, threatening letters from my mother, I informed her that for my own mental health and that of my wife's we can no longer have any further contact with her for the foreseeable future. Since then, I've had to block her email address on my e-mail account, am not answering her phone calls, and am returning evey letter she sends right back, unread. :( -
Insomniac
I lost a bunch of cousins, and things are sketchy with my brother and his family- they're in another state, so I never get to actually see them. They still talk to me a bit on the phone, but those calls are few and far between. I'm losing them in slow motion. I lost pretty much all of my friends, as well.
On the bright side, through this board I reconnected with a very dear friend I thought never to see again, and got to talk on the phone to the wonderful young man I was engaged to when we were still teenagers- he's disfellowshipped now, and still as sweet as ever. And, I got to meet all of you fine folks!
It sucks to have the people you love the most, turn their backs on you. I keep thinking, though, that they'll get to missing me, and maybe reconsider this barbaric practice they've been brainwashed into.
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Tatiana
I, neither my children, have seen my mother in 13 years. Gotten two letters thick with scriptures, and pleas to "come back to Jehovah." I have not replied. My brother ran away from home when he was 12, and I didn't see him until his high school graduation. My sister is dead. Have not seen my anointed uncle in about 10 years. And he was my favorite person in the world. I tried to establish contact with him last year, and we were emailing each other, but my aunt put a stop to that, and sent me a rather nasty email.
Have not seen my aunt in 20 years, or my other uncle. They are not witnesses, they just hate my mother being a JW so much, they would never come to South Carolina for anything.
I'm still trying to find my best friend, Linda Lawhon/McDougall. I saw her last in Vero Beach, Fla. in '91, and she was not attending meetings very often. I wish I could find her.