That's the heartbreaking question of all questions for any noncustodial parent. It burns and churns so desperately deep and violent.
As humans we don’t want to be forgotten. As parents we don’t want to be forgotten. As friends, lovers, partners, high school BFFs – you get it – we simply don’t want to be left behind, blotted out or intentionally discarded into the misfit category.
It’s an intense innate desire; a built in feature of belonging, purpose and justification as to why we’re even here. We feel that if we don’t belong, we don’t matter; and if we don’t matter, we’ll be forgotten. It’s clearly a logical thought process, I think.