I will try to be concise.
My father is elderly and in poor health.
For many complex reasons that I won't go into fully on here, he has estranged himself from me and my dh and 2 dds. (he never sees the dds, has never met dd2). In a nutshell the issues are mainly to do with his awkward/abusive personality and his past behaviour towards me, so although it is his choice not to see us, in some ways it is a relief. (I have seen him maybe a dozen times at most over the past 20 years)
I stay in contact solely by Christmas card just to make that effort, his choice has been not to respond.
I have one younger db who is lovely but lives a somewhat chaotic lifestyle. Our father is in sporadic contact with him.
However on occasion I receive phone calls from neighbours/police/family friends expressing concern re my father.
This happened tonight. Luckily I managed to get hold of my brother. I would feel horrible saying to the neighbour that it's not my business and my dad doesn't want me involved. However at some point his health will get worse and obviously he will die one day.
Anyone else been through this?
Sorry if I sound callous and uncaring, there is a great deal of emotional history and complexity here.
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Relationships
What happens if you are estranged from a relative but you are still "next of kin" and something (like death or serious illness) happens to that person?
11 replies
onepieceofcremeegg · 06/06/2009 20:12
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