Demetrius Thigpen grew up in Detroit, Michigan with a mother he describes as single. His father, said Demetrius, was an alcoholic. And while he was in and out of Demetrius and his sister's lives, Demitrius said the experience of on-again off-again fathering was like having a bandaid continually ripped off. At one point, Demetrius said, he remembers his mother stopping on the side of the road and calling his father - sitting outside a liquor store - to get into the car with them. His father was so so drunk, said Demetrius, that he didn't even recognize them.Before the age of ten, Demetrius recalls being sat down by his father and told that it was time for him to become the man of the house. "I could never do that to my children," Demetrius said of the experience. Now a U.S. Marine, Demetrius is also the father of three children, and is often stationed away from them. With his family living in Arizona at the moment and himself stationed in California, Demetirus said he struggles with not
