I just got the news that my father had a
stroke earlier today. He’s in intensive care, and I’m not quite sure how to deal with
the news yet. I really care about him and love him very much, but he’s never
really been there for me when I was younger. My parents were divorced when I
was way too young to remember and after YEARS of searching, I finally managed
to get a number for him. I then called him up and the very first thing he asked
me was: “So how is your sister?”
My sister has always been the apple of his
eye. She got the gifts and the money while I got the IOUs and the apologies. I
was the boy who—on his 10th birthday—spent the entire afternoon and
evening waiting on the front porch; excited about his daddy coming to pick him
up for dinner, only to end up crying himself to sleep. It stings every time he
responds to my sister’s Facebook wall posts, but not mine.
Still, I really do love him dearly.
He never abused me or anything… he just
wasn’t there. I guess I coped with it by using writing as an outlet. You will
notice father/son themes sprinkled through almost all of my books. At the
moment you’ll only have access to two of my stories: Love and a .38 and The Son of
Perdition. In Love and a .38, the
father/son theme is subtle, but it’s there and ties up at the end. In The Son of Perdition, the struggle
between Timothy and his father was most probably my sub conscious dealing with
my own inner issues. When The Incubus
and The Succubus go up, you will see
it there too. I don’t plan it on purpose… but I do recognize it when it weaves
itself into my words.
He is currently going through a very messy
divorce, which stripped him of almost every single thing he owned and all his
money. Without a medical aid, this stroke thing might become an expensive
business with regards to hospital bills and medication and whatnots. The only
way I can help out from my side is by donating the little money I make through
my books to cover his expenses.
And I’ll gladly do it. Because I love him
and know that deep down, in his own special way, he loves me too…