Last Sunday a young man from our old hall committed suicide. His Mom had been my best friend growing up and he grew up with my middle son so there is a lot of past history . My son now lives in another state ,but drove home as soon as he heard the tragic news . Sunday he went over to the families home and was able to be there with other former friends to comfort each other which was good . However since my son has recently faded his friends have not called or come by the whole week he has been here . They told him they all wish he would come back to meetings ...Which he replied "why would I do that when I no longer believe it ? It would just be for appearances ...." They are okay with that because then they wouldn't have any pressure on them for associating with him .
I explained to him that this is Emotional Blackmail and Witnesses often are only conditional friends as long as you follow their guidlines . Real friends accept you for who you are . It still doesn't make it any easier to watch your children come to the realization that their friends really are not friends .
I am so angry and sad al at the same time . It has brought up for me all the emotions I thought i had dealt with when leaving ... Now tommorrow is the Memorial service ...at the Kingdom Hall and it is going to suck big time . I warned my sons to be prepared this service will not be about their friend it will be 5 minutes of memories and a half our preaching witness style .
Today I wish I had one of your phone numbers cause I realized I have no one in my life now that I can talk this all through with .It would really help to have someone that understands the dynamics of how disturbing all this is for me ..only another ex-witness can understand how shitty all this is.....