My Mom Kicked Me Out as a Teen, Leaving Me Homeless — Now She’s Pleading for My Help

Simone, 31, never imagined she’d face the person who left her behind as a teenager. Yet years after being pushed out of her home, her mother returned, desperate for help — forcing Simone to confront a past she thought she’d buried.

Here’s Simone’s letter:

Hi, Now I’ve Seen Everything!

My name is Simone, and at 31, I’m facing a decision I never imagined I’d have to make. I’m hoping someone out there can help me see things clearly.

When I was 16, my mother told me I needed to leave. Her boyfriend was moving in, and he didn’t want “another man’s kid” in the house. I asked her where she expected me to go, and all she said was that I’d “figure it out.” So I walked out that night with nothing but a backpack and no place to sleep.

One night I had a home; the next I didn’t. Friends helped for a while until they couldn’t anymore, and then I slept wherever I could find shelter. I finished school late, took whatever work I could get, and did my best to stay afloat.
I went hungry more times than I can count. I felt unseen. And through it all, my mother never called. We barely spoke. I had no choice but to learn to survive on my own.

Years passed. I worked odd jobs, saved every dollar I could, put myself through college, and slowly worked up the corporate ladder.

By 31, I owned a large house and had a stable career. Everything I had, I built on my own. I told myself I was done looking back.

And then, out of nowhere, my mother showed up asking for help as if the past never happened. She looked older, frail, and exhausted. She said her boyfriend was gone, she was sick, and she had nowhere else to go.

When she asked if she could move in with me, my immediate response was no. I reminded her of the night she chose him over me and put me out on the street. I told her I couldn’t offer a safe home to the same person who took mine away.

She didn’t fight back. She just handed me an envelope and walked away.

Inside was a hospital report. My mom had stage four pancreatic cancer. Prognosis: six weeks, possibly less.

I ran outside. She was still there, holding onto the railing to steady herself. She took my hand and said quietly, “I’ve already lost everything. Please don’t let me lose you twice.”

Now I have to decide what kind of person I want to be. If I allow her to move in, I’ll be letting the same woman who abandoned me step back into the most vulnerable part of my life. Every time I see her in my home, I know I’ll relive the night she told me to leave.

If I refuse, I will be the last door she ever knocks on. I will be the person who leaves a dying woman alone, even if she once did the same to me. She chose her boyfriend over me when I was sixteen. Now she is asking me to choose between my peace and her final weeks.

If you were in my place, which choice would you live with? Please help me!

Yours sincerely,
Simone

Dear Simone, thank you for sharing your story with us. You were incredibly brave at 16, and you’re just as brave now as you face an almost impossible decision. The truth is, there isn’t a single “right” or “wrong” answer — but here are a few things worth considering:

• You are allowed to protect the life you built: The home and stability you have now came from years of surviving on your own. Whatever you decide, it is okay to consider your own emotional safety alongside her needs.
• You can acknowledge her situation without rewriting your past: Feeling compassion now does not erase what happened when you were sixteen. Both truths can exist at the same time, even if they pull you in opposite directions. Letting go of old hurts doesn’t mean pretending they didn’t happen. It means actively processing the emotions connected to them.
  Practices like journaling, mindfulness, and talking through the past can help you understand how early experiences shaped you without letting them define your choices now.
• Break the choice into pieces and tune into your inner sense of what feels right: When a decision feels impossible, separating the emotional, practical, and long-term pieces can help you see what each option actually means for your life. Paying attention to patterns in your feelings and reactions, not just logic, can give you insight into which choice aligns with your values and what you can live with most comfortably.

Another reader found herself caught in a challenging dilemma as well. She refused to allow her 12-year-old daughter to share a bedroom with her teenage stepbrother.