Lol okay Anita I will answer these questions but I’m going to be pulling out the soap box for these answers =)

1. My tolerance started at the age of 21 when my mother passed away from cancer. With her passing my family basically imploded in on its self. She was the glue that kept it all together and when she left there was nothing to keep it together. I was seeing someone at the time and she was part African American and Mexican. I come from a traditional Polish / Catholic family.

Racism is quite prevalent, You don’t mix blood. Long story short her illness took 4 years of fighting and battling before it took her life. It was hard on us all but even harder for her because she was no longer fighting for herself but for us and the family. On her death bed she had managed to write me a small letter just before she passed. In this letter she asked me to stay together as a family, to do my best to stick together and help each other. She also managed to write that she was happy that I was seeing someone but if I brought black blood into the family she would disown me forever.

I tried honoring her wish with the family. It lasted about 6 months after her passing. My grandmother never spoke to my father again after the funeral along with many other things. I could not take the distance and squabbling any longer. I prayed and I told her that I tried to honor her wishes but the others could not. That was the end of my family life. It was my father my brother and me. Brother and father were alcoholics, father calmed the drinking down but started using drugs about a year after her passing. My brother for all I know is still drinking. Have not seen or spoken to him since 1999.

The drugs and COPD finally took my father back in August of 2011. For the record… I do not drink. I will have the occasional beer from time to time and that’s about it. Drugs… Tried a few different things in my youth but never liked the feeling of not being in control. Haven’t touched a drug since the age of 18 or 19

2. I was treated very well by my parents. There were no games and lies from either of them. They had a rough life it was not the Brady bunch by any means. Both parents were strict and disciplined minded. I was thought respect honor and love by them both. My father was a alcoholic and there were many fights and arguments because of it. My father never hit my mother through any of it. They were married 27 years and the only thing that separated them was her death.

Through out all those years I was there I learned from them that you face your problems and do your best to deal with them. She never left him and he never left her. In this day and age everyone seems to want to walk away from problems and find someone else to replace those problems. There is no more working on anything as far as I am concerned and from what I have experienced. Hence my it’s no longer “Until Death Do Us Part” now it has become “Until something else better comes along.” Why work at it when you can just replace it.

I wouldn’t say I had a perfect childhood but I do not blame my childhood or parents for anything. In fact I am very proud to be who I am and the lessons and love that they both taught and showed me.

Hope this was a good answer for you.

Mike