Gary Morehead Pulled Away From Family, His Sister Says

Cyndi was heartbroken when her brother, Gary Morehead, chose to estrange himself from the family, and caused their father to pull away as well.

TRANSCRIPT:

I started to try to reach out to my brother and have a relationship with him, have him be an uncle, etc. That wasn’t going anywhere, and it was really disappointing.

When my brother left the Church, he was on his own living in Los Angeles. My family was in San Diego. And I kind of looked forward to being able to have him over because I thought his time would be freed up—have him get to know his nieces and nephews. He wasn’t reachable so much or didn’t seem really interested in coming down and visiting and doing that sort of thing.

Meaning, he didn’t really show up. And there would maybe be an agreement to, and then the kids would really get excited to see their uncle, hang out with him. I know he has some firefighter skills, so that was really exciting for my children. And then he wouldn’t come, so they would get disappointed. And I was left having to explain to them, for some reason, why Uncle Gary wouldn’t come and see them.

It’s not just for myself and my children and my family. You know, I do have a sister—she also has children, a great family—and it seems my brother has done the same sort of thing with her as far as, you know, not coming to anything regular to come and visit his nephews, spend time with them. I mean, they live in LA even, and I live in San Diego, so I would think it would be a little easier. And it’s been a similar kind of effort on our part. My sister and I are very close. We spend every holiday together. Our kids have grown up together. And, you know, there’s been a big thing missing. And we finally had to say, “You know what? There’s too much effort. It just breaks our heart.” And he’s chosen—my brother’s chosen to become estranged, on his own, from us as a family.

A few years after my brother left the Church, he called me and he explained that he was in a bad way—meaning, that he needed some money pretty soon because in the next couple of days he would be without an apartment, be on the street, and have to eat Top Ramen as a choice. And I was very apprehensive at first to loan money because, first of all, I have four children and things were tight. But he had, you know, a mercy call in his voice. And I was apprehensive too because we haven’t been in touch so much. We didn’t have a really good line with each other. But, I did decide that I needed to do that because he’s my brother. So I loaned him the twelve hundred dollars. He said he had another way to pay it back to me within the first of the month or so. But, he actually never did pay that back.

One thing I’ll add about my brother Gary is—it just adds to the list—what he’s done is told my father stories that really go against the family. He’s filled him with [his] own rumors that he’s spreading about our Church and that’s put a pretty harsh line between my father and I, and has actually become a block in my relationship with father and myself. And, you know, that’s really sad.

Meanwhile, you know, my sister and I and my mother, we all have a great relationship. We see each other often. We play together. We cry together. We do all that stuff. It’s all about the family and helping each other, spending time with one another. You know, we’re all getting older now, so that weighs on your mind too. And I’ve had to come to the conclusion that, you know, it’s not a very good possibility that I’ll have a relationship with my brother.

In the end, I really hope that my brother can be super honest with himself. When he looks in the mirror, that’s who he has to deal with, and I hope that he can do that.