Plot

A woman discovers that her husband faked his death and assumed a new identity, while she struggled for 10 years as a single mother.

Patrick Hennessy Welsh had a fine job at an Ohio university, but abused it to cash fake expenses filed under the names of unsuspecting professors. When he is found out and condemned, his wife Elisabeth and sons Chris and Ted find a note that he has committed suicide and will love and watch them from heaven. Years later, when they have painstakingly adjusted to life without a dad, she learns from the insurance company he is not dead- it appears he has been allowed to start a new life as Timothy Michael Kingsbury to pay off debts. Elisabeth first approaches him alone, but doesn't even get financial compensation for the repayment demanded by his falsely paid-out life insurance. Ultimately she tells the boys the truth, as she intends to sue him...—LGF

True story of Patrick Welsh who abandoned his wife and two sons in Ohio and left behind a suicide note for his wife.

Believing her husband is dead Peachie Welsh has him declared legally dead and obtains Social Security survivor benefits for her sons.

Peachie struggles to care for her sons and eventually becomes President of the Chamber of Commerce in Licking County, Ohio.

Ten years later Peachie Welsh receives a letter from Social Security demanding repayment and finds out from an agent for Social Security that Patrick Welsh is not dead but living in Maine.

Peachie goes to Maine to determine if this is really her husband and finds out it is him. Peachie confronts Patrick and he is shocked to see her. She decides to have her husband prosecuted.

Peachie tells her sons the truth about their father who they idolized as kids. His memory is somewhat glossed over and the kids are shocked to learn their dad is alive after all these years.

Patrick Welsh gets arrested and brought to Ohio for court. Patrick does meet his two sons briefly but neither son is interested in what their father has to say.

The woman Patrick Welsh had been living with was unable to raise his substantial bail and Patrick Welsh had to remain jailed until his hearing.

Both sons are successful as one manages a restaurant and the other is in his last year of college.

The younger son testifies in court that his mother had been both mother and father to them. He asks how can a father abandon his own children and not once contact them to let them know he is alive and well.

Patrick Welsh pleads guilty and is sentenced to prison for 3 years but ends up serving less than a year before being released.

In the actual story Patrick Welsh became Timothy Michael Kingsbury and started his new life in Galveston, TX.