Sorry, this is a long one.....................
She was a danish au pair and we got together when we were 18. We met in the same brass band, and we became a couple within 2 months. I really, really loved her, and we lost our virginity to each other. I went over to meet her friends and family in Denmark. We had a lovely 18 months or so together.
In the end, she got in with a bad crowd of other au pairs. They didn't like me (I was suspicious of them, particularly one of them who was german. She was supposedly a christian, but I have a nasty idea that that her constant changes of jobs and going back and forward to germany was a cover for drugs and other smuggling). This group took her to some of these clubs and pubs were they basically would set her up with other men (I was either working or teaching). This happened 4 times ( that I know of), and she chucked me for one of these guys. I begged and cried for her to take me back, but she wouldn't. She would bring him along to concerts that we doing together, and it hurt, hurt, so much. I would see them cuddling, and leaving together. In the end, I had to leave that band, I had no other choice.
Now the rest of the story, she has told me, so I have only one side of it..............................
Sadly, it didn't work out well for her. This guy dumped her after a couple of years (they did get engaged, but only lived together for 6 months, which is odd, and I think the novelty value of a Scandinavian girlfriend wore thin, particularly having to go to Denmark every year..... She then got together with a guy she met in the pub, whom was desperate to be a dad (he was 40, and she 28). They were together for 6 months, and he begged her for her to become pregnant and have her kid. She agreed (possibly body clock) and she became pregnant, but.....he then decided he actually didn't want to be a dad and met up with one of his ex's and told my ex that he was going back to her. She was so angry, she dumped all the stuff that his parents had bought for the baby on their drive (she was 6 months gone!).
She had to go back to Denmark and had the baby. She contacts the grandparents (she can't contact the father), and lets them know that she has had the baby, they reply 'We are not interested' and put the phone down on her. A year or so, later she met another guy, whom was happy to have a ready made family, and she became pregnant, but sadly same story again. Now she has 2 kids, no fathers about.
She meets another guy, and get engaged. They had 3 more kids (I know, I know!). He stays this time, but about 4 years ago, he starts drinking heavily and becoming violent. It ends up one night with him grabbing my ex and her eldest daughter by the throat (he's a big guy). She manages to get the kids out, and they are hiding in a cornfield away from him, but manage to get a friends house. He has made several threats since, and it's gone legal.....
Anyway, 18 months or so, I have a friend request from her. I'm a nosy sod (I've been in a relationship with a great lady for the last 12 years btw), and we start talking, and she tells me the above. She wants her eldest daughter to talk to me, because she wants her daughter to know just one decent man that she has met in her life. Just one. Just one that never lied, beat her up, cheated on her, deserted her........
I was stunned, but the girl is delightful. She regularly asks me for advice, and lets off steam about everyone (sisters, mum, school!!!). She (the daughter) asked me to go to her 'Coming of Age' ceremony that they have in Denmark when they are 14. I went (My gf hates travelling, and she knows I'm not a cheat, so was happy for me to go). My ex told me that she wishes that she hadn't done what she had done, and wished that she were still together, and that I had been the father of her kids. I gently told her that we all make our path, and that I don't believe in going back, but that I would always be her friend.....
Hey, after all. I ended up with someone amazing, so I'm a lucky person........
Sorry, if i bored you.