Single father’s emotional Facebook post goes viral

Being a single parent is difficult. Of course you’ll try your best to be there for your child and make the right decisions but you won’t always be able to and you’ll criticise yourself for it. Richard Johnson has opened up about his struggle to come to terms with raising his daughter Persephone alone. His partner left them when she was just one-month-old. As he had nobody to help him, he turned to YouTube tutorials and the 'Life of Dads' support group for advice. This week he thanked the community for being there for him during the course of the last nine months. He explained: "Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don't know exactly why, but we suspect post-partum depression played a part. "In the first few weeks of it being just her and me, I stumbled upon your page by accident. I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles. I wasn't sure I could do it." He finished by writing: "We're both very happy now and continue to grow together everyday. She's now 10 months, and I now get asked by my friends for parenting advice constantly. "We've come a long way, my daughter and me, and we definitely owe part of that to this page and the people within it. So from both of us, we wanted to thank you." The post, uploaded on Wednesday evening, has since gone viral on Facebook and has led to others sharing their stories. Richard later followed up on his original post to thank people for their kind words and reactions to his story. He said: "I honestly don't know what to say. I've been reading everyone's comments and I'd be lying if I said I haven't became a tad bit emotional. As I sit here now writing to all of you, my heart wants to jump out of my chest and tears want to will their way to the surface. "Thank you to each and every single one of you. You truly can't understand how much everyone's words mean to me. I am constantly criticizing myself on how I can be a better father and this was just the right medicine I needed."