The mother abandons them shortly after birth: The father takes charge and raises his beautiful baby girl on his own
Becoming a parent can be both a wonderful and difficult experience, an experience that is full of satisfaction but also many obstacles.
Not everyone, however, is ready when the time comes, for some people the burden of responsibility is so great that it triggers real panic and leaves them no other choice than to flee in the opposite direction.
At that point, everything falls on the shoulders of a single parent, and it is even harder when the mother is the one who has left.
In fact, Richard Johnson has been living a similar story, since January 2015, when his daughter, a beautiful girl named Persephone, was born.
After just one month, the baby's mother took Persephone and fled to California, then quickly changing her mind, she called Richard asking him to come and get the baby otherwise, she was going to give her up for adoption.
Facebook / Persephone & Richard Johnson
The man, or rather the boy, immediately ran to get his daughter back. But, then, he found himself alone with a small baby, and he was only 21 years old with a newborn baby to look after.
Confused and desperate, Richard luckily came across a support group for single fathers on Facebook called "Life of Dad".
Facebook / Persephone & Richard Johnson
Thanks to this community, he found hope again, receiving comfort and support from many other fathers who, like him, were in the same situation.
The warmth of all the people who have helped him is what prompted him to publish a heart moving letter that soon went viral:
Facebook / Persephone & Richard Johnson
"My name is Richard Johnson and I’m a single father to a beautiful little girl called Persephone. Her mother left us about a month after she was born. We still do not know exactly why, but we suspect that birth depression has played a major role in this.
In the first few weeks of it being just her and me, I stumbled upon your page by accident. I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles. I wasn’t sure I could do it.”
“I had read every "new parent" book I could find and clocked in over 1,000 hours in YouTube videos from everything to braiding hair and painting nails to theories on how to deal with common parental issues. I then started to watch your page more closely and saw that there were other fathers out there who were in similar predicaments as me. The page started to turn into a major confidence booster and really helped me through all of this.
I always look forward to photo submissions and reading the stories of some of the awesome dads out there in this community. You truly helped my daughter and me through a very difficult time.
We’re both very happy now and continue to grow together every day. She’s now 10 months, and I now get asked by my friends for parenting advice constantly. We’ve come a long way, my daughter and me, and we definitely owe part of that to this page and the people within it. So from both of us, we wanted to thank you.
Facebook / Persephone & Richard Johnson
Richard's posted letter received a ton of shares and likes, but the story does not end there. In April 2017, the young man shared a wonderful update in which he communicated the name of his new partner, a young woman named Jennifer.
He says that although there was an immediate connection between the two of them, Richard waited a while before he introduced her to his little daughter, Persephone.
When the two did meet, something magical happened, and it was as if the child had already accepted and chosen Jennifer as her new mother.
Now, Jennifer's family has also become that of Persephone and her father, Richard, welcoming the two with all the love they are capable of.
