I went eight years without seeing my father, but it wasn’t by choice.
He was living 1,200 miles on the opposite side of the country, and I have been acting as a caregiver for my mother in the time since.
Have I done anything to prevent him from getting on a plane to visit us here in the south? Absolutely not—in fact, he did once in 2012. It’s hard knowing that someone you care for greatly doesn’t wish to see you nearly as much as you want to see them, let alone your own father! It still bothers me, but what am I supposed to do? I live closer to him now and I wish he would simply acknowledge all of those years I went without being able to see him in the physical form. Once or twice a week I head over to his house as it’s only 20 minutes away from mine. Sometimes he makes a home cooked meal, but lately we’ve simply shared coffee amongst each other while talking with a plate of donuts between us. My dad’s old air conditioner has been the topic of discussion lately because it was giving my dad a lot of trouble until he finally budgeted the money for a new one. I told him that he should look for the most energy efficient HVAC system he could afford if it didn’t mean sacrificing on performance at the same time. He went with an air conditioner with the highest SEER rating which resulted in a strong performing machine with extremely high energy efficiency as well.