Five years ago, my mother died of colon cancer after struggling for over a year. My family and I were told right before I started my college career that she would be dead by Christmas, about 6 months after my 18th birthday. My younger brother had just started high school.
About 2 months after she died, my father started dating this women, whom we found out about through the grapevine the following year. They became engaged around my mother's first anniversary.
To make a long story short, none of my siblings or I are in contact with him any longer. I personally have not seen or spoken to him since the summer of 2009. As a narcissist, it was to benefit our mental health to cut him out of our lives just as he wanted us to. As a result, I have gradually learned what it really means to be independent in this world.