Being a parent can be difficult, especially at a young age. Richard Johnson and his girlfriend had their daughter Persephone when they were 21-years-old. The couple thought they were ready for the responsibility and for the first few weeks, things were going great. Then, Richard’s girlfriend took off for California with their daughter. She then contacted Richard and told him that if he didn’t come and get Persephone, that she was going to put her up for adoption. Richard hopped on a plane and immediately flew to get his daughter back. He strongly suspects that his ex-girlfriend was suffering from postpartum depression at the time.
Back at home in Las Vegas, Richard was faced with a whole new life which left him anxious and depressed. He realized he had no idea how to care for a child on his own. This led him to begin searching the internet for help. He stumbled upon a blog called “Life of Dad” where he found other single fathers that showed him it was possible to be alone and successful. After spending some time on “Life of Dad”, Richard’s life with Persephone turned around. To show his gratitude to the blog, he posted an open letter which ended up going viral.
“Life of Dad,
My name is Richard Johnson, and I’m a single father to a beautiful little girl named Persephone. Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don’t know exactly why, but we suspect postpartum depression played a part. 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. 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.
Sincerely,
Persephone & Richard Johnson”
