I Gave Up 22 Years of My Life Raising My Triplet Nieces – What They Did at Their College Graduation Made Me Drop to My Knees

• Did I do enough?
• Did I say the right things at the right time?
• Did they know I loved them, or did they just know I was tired?

I wondered if the girls noticed.

There was a fear under all of it that I never said out loud. That somewhere in the back of their hearts, the triplets were still waiting for their real father.

That I was the man who’d been there, but not the man they wanted.

I didn’t blame them for it. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.

There was a fear under all of it.

Twenty-two years of birthday cards he never sent, phone calls he never made, and now, on the one day I’d actually shown up for, they were going to honor the man who didn’t.

I felt the hurt rise in my throat as if it had been waiting for me. I told myself to sit still, smile, and let them have this if they needed it.