Beatrice, I firmly believe that they do "miss" what they ran from. However, they will not admit it until much later on and in some cases after everyone has moved on or they are on their death bed.
They tend to contact us around holidays and special events because they do remember the goods times and yes, they still want us to know that they do. They just don't know how to communicate w/us while they are on the lam.
It's a huge loss to everyone when they are like this. Unfortunately, all we can do is have faith that God will guide them in the right direction and keep them safe. Some of them will be strong enough to work their way back to their families, others will not, i.e., like my xh. He's definitely a long time goner.
Beatrice, I sincerely hope that your xh will find his way back to you and your family and he can find the strength to make it work and learn from his crisis what he needed to know in order to grow up.
Sit quietly, the answers will reveal themselves when you least expect them to. The past is gone, the present is a gift and you need to focus on today, allow the future to reveal itself when it is ready.
