[pschon]

I suspect the author felt betrayed. She's sent away. She is not 40 years old. Imagine trauma with absence of a father and who knows how the mother might have explained it all. Nothing easier than blame. I'm sure at the first visit she was extremely upset and trying to cope and kept coping to survive. It seems in the end that she might have gained some empathy for her father just at the time he lost it for her.

[mnglkhn2]

I think it is the father who sacrificed: Out of a family of four, he is the one that chose to stay behind so that the other three (mother and two children) can get to US.

Interesting fact is that we do not hear much at all about the mother.