History of Fathers Resources International 

Chapter One -  The Amps of Wrath - Part II

By Danny Guspie 

Since that Greek tragedy, its been amazing life! Much more than I ever expected! None survived the trip with me - I've had three important adult relationships of which parenting is one,  several successful careers. loads of community, volunteer and entrepreneurial pursuits, world travel, many fulfilled dreams.

I served as Scoutmaster for 10 years in the St. Lawrence neighborhood of downtown Toronto. Tons of fun taking inner-city kids  outdoors for an intensive camping program. 

Single fatherhood - Wow! I raised a stepson who's  24 and a daughter who's 18. Single parenthood had challenges. Being Dad has been the most gratifying experience. Today I'm a "retired father"/empty-nester...;-)

In hindsight: "All things come to he who waits, and he who hesitates is lost..." Some wished I had hesitated more, and some definitely wished I had been less reticent and hesitant in my teen years.

Raising a daughter helped me to better understand women (who'd been a complete mystery). Scarred badly  by two former  antagonistic, mean, petty and hurtful girlfriends was more than my fragile ego could take. Combined with my parents divorce, it seemed like my world had come apart at the seams. Hence the stage is set for 2 marriages, after losing that girl at Overlea and prior to finding Heidi...

With emerging self-confidence, behind dark aviator Ray-Ban glasses I regrouped. Still have my Ray-Ban's quit getting high a long time ago.

How I needed a true friend back then. Someone to lean on, someone to understand and say - "Danny, forget about it - your so much better than all that is happening to you..."  I thought the girl might be that person - the soulmate...she was very kind to me.

So I became my own best friend. There was no other option. I know if my last day at Overlea had turned out differently, my adult life would have emerged sooner, but I learned a powerful lesson about how life changes instantaneously - that's the power of love lost...

I 'd love to have memories shared with her & many old friends. Besides Overlea, my best years at school were the 6 months at St. Leonard's where I finished Grade 8.

But hey - it all worked out, yet I lost my Mom in the process. She just fell off the face of the earth. No one knows where she is...now that's heartache.

If you read this mom call me. Our office for Fathers' Resources International has a toll-free number that works throughout North America...1-888-54-Daddy or 416-861-0626.

I wonder where my first girlfriend Debbie Catrera went to (my funny six year old peanut butter girlfriend from grade one - we lived in the same building till her Mom passed away). The last time I saw her she asked me for my new phone number and neither of us had a pencil....THE END....all the great girls until Heidi, slipped through my fingers,...

Most chapters of my life were like that until Heidi. Then it began to change. Someone believed in me, besides me. It's been a wonderful, wonderful blessing to no longer be alone. To be truly, madly and passionately in love. The one thing I always wanted - a soulmate.

We met on a chat line and have been together for 14 wonderfully exciting years heading towards 14 fabulous years next August 2006. I am such a lucky, lucky guy!

All of the enormous upheaval and changes with family, values, morality, drugs, and general self-centeredness during the 60's and 70's had a profound impact on me.

At age 13 I was a latch-key kid; by 16 on student welfare living in a room by myself, neither parent wanted the mess they created in me... by 17 I'd lost it all and was going down for the count. By 18, with a job and some money of my own, working as a life-guard, then in the factories, then in TV and then as a single father...well need I say more?

Look at kids today - six  generations of divorce later - what an ugly, sad mess the world has become. One without beauty, hope, love, dreams, charity.