Tony Balaam

A Window on My Life Tony Balaam

During my life, my Dad and I had a very complicated relationship, but I loved him and when he died, I decided to write down what I felt and then edit some of the more personal content to save friends and family at the funeral any embarrassment. Although I found the process emotionally draining, pouring out my thoughts on paper enabled me to lay to rest a number of personal demons and so with the funeral over, I decided perhaps I should take the same approach with other issues in my life that I had yet to resolve. Rather than think about individual instances, I chose to write an honest account of my life and during the course of writing my story, I was surprised to learn that with the benefit of hindsight, firmly held views can change, and the reasons for people's actions can become clearer. Writing my story was intended to help me understand myself better. It was never my intention to hurt, punish or embarrass anybody, but rather to think about how I felt at the time and the reasoning behind my failures as well as my successes. But I also wanted to give credit and show my appreciation to the people who have helped me and my family along the way and highlight the fact that things are not always as they seem.