This is a very sad situation. My heart goes out to Jerry, and this is why. From what I gathered from the show, Jerry's x-wife stopped letting Jerry see the children due to his partying, and lack of parental skills, when the children were young. Jerry still paid child support due to his wages being garnished. When the x-wife went after the back child support, then he decided to go on the run. By this time she had another husband who was playing the roll of father for the children. She wanted the money, but didn't want Jerry to be a part of the children's lives. After years of telling the children how terrible their father was, she successfully was able to turn the daughter against him, but not the son. When the son got older he found his father, and rekindled the relationship. They partied together, which is irresponsible on Jerry's part, but just might be the reason why the son wanted the relationship with his Dad in the first place, thinking that his Dad was cool...that is the way that children think. I don't feel it is right that Jerry is being blamed for the son taking his own life, but I have a feeling he would have been blamed regardless. When people loose the ones they love under these kind of circumstances they are looking for someone or something to blame. The mother, and daughter saying he took his life because he didn't want to end up like his father, is a pretty shallow excuse of escaping any blame that they maybe responsible for, or have partaken in. Maybe the reason he took his life is quite the opposite reason, then they think, maybe he was tired of the hatred, and resent showed towards his father, plus his own family problems, and it was just more then he could bare, who's really to say. As far as the daughter saying that the documentary was glorifying a dead-beat father...what part of homeless, and being a hobo is glorifying? Unless one has been homeless, one has no idea the hell, and hard times one goes through, it is not an easy life by any means. I can say this sincerely because I have been homeless before, and not by choice. As far as I understand the daughter has never watched the documentary, and more or less this was a way for her to discredit her father. The hate, and disrespect she showed for her father to me was repulsive. Jerry showed more respect by showing up on the show in the first place, and being as humble as he was, then either of them. I think this was a cruel way of both the mother, and the daughter to publicly humiliate the man. Dr. Phil was so right by telling the daughter that she must get past this in order to live a healthy life, and in order to have healthy relationships with others, including her own children...I praise you Dr. Phil for saying this. I know this all to be a fact because I have lived it, and I am past it. The only difference between me, and Jerry's daughter is...my father refused to have anything to do with me period, and I have gotten past it a longtime ago! Jerry could have fled to Mexico, and been a beach bum if he was really the monster that they both tried to make him out to be. I say forgive the man and get on with the rest of your life, to both the daughter, and mother!
(Original Air Date: 09/27/07) Jerry has been out of his daughter, Kayla's, life for 17 years – - by choice. He went on the run to avoid paying child support, now lives as a hobo floating down the Mississippi River on a raft. Kayla had no contact with Jerry until a couple of filmmakers decided to make a documentary about his life. The film is called “Nobody,” and Kayla says it actually glorifies her deadbeat Dad. Learn what Jerry says in the film that is so repugnant to Kayla that she feels compelled to confront her father and set the record straight. Then, Dr. Phil takes you on an unusual search for the man who calls the Mississippi River his home. When the searchers meet Jerry face to face, is he ready for a confrontation with the daughter he hasn’t seen since she was a toddler? Hear why he says he stayed away when tragedy struck their family. Emotions run high when father and daughter face off. But will Jerry have the answers Kayla is looking for? Join the discussion.
