Loss and Forbidden Love

Dear Prudence,
I was a shy, homely girl who was bullied viciously by both siblings and schoolmates through most of my childhood. My lunches were stolen, I was regularly hit, and more. Teachers ignored what was happening, and my parents blamed me for being victimized. It was a sad, lonely, and hopeless childhood, but I have struggled to move past it. I?m now happily married, with a great kid and a decent job. I moved away from my hometown as soon as I could, and in recent years when I?ve come back to visit my parents, former classmates have approached me to apologize. They go through incidents, in detail, that apparently haunt them, asking for forgiveness. They get their absolution, and I?m forced to relive those awful memories. A reunion is coming up and my contact information was published in a directory. I?m getting notes telling me how much I?ve been missed at previous reunions, how everybody wants to talk to me, and how I owe it to them and myself to come. How can I get people to understand that I forgive them, but that I would appreciate being left alone as I am trying to forget my unhappy past?

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