I really liked this story, and a nice reading also!
The story, and some of Mur's comments, reminded me of one of my favourite poems:
SOMETIMES A MAN STANDS UP DURING SUPPER
Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.
And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.
And another man, who remains inside his own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which he forgot.
Rainer Maria Rilke
translated by Robert Bly
Religious overtones aside, this poem summarizes for me this dilemma that staying at home
"for the children's sake" can sometimes actually harm them more than it helps.
Maybe what they need is an example of a person fulfilling their full potential,
rather than constant chatter about how this is possible. I wonder if the absent (grand-)father left
because (grand-)mother Jenny wasn't allowing him room enough to find his own fulfillment, just as she did later
to her daughter. We can't really be fully there for our children if we aren't fully realized ourselves.
To that end, we must leave sometimes, put family on hold, and seek to accomplish something out
of the home, in the wider world.