It’s a sad fact of life that many kids don’t get the supportive parents they deserve. Many a child has grown up dealing with the consequences of having a parental figure who was neglectful or abandoned them, and what’s worse is that these old wounds can be brought to the surface again if those parents decide to try and make amends when they’re adults.

When this happens, there is often an ulterior motive, as one woman suspected when her father tried to reconnect with her after leaving their family when she was 10. Left penniless and sick after his divorce from his second wife, he hoped that she would allow him to stay in her home. Thanks to what she had experienced in her relationship with him in the past, she refused, but both he and some of her extended family thought she was being unfair. Luckily, the internet was on her side.