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AIBU?

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Fathers death

4 replies

Fleetwoodmax · 09/10/2026 18:17

My father moved to a foreign country some 11-14?hrs away from UK when I was in my early 30s. I’m now 50. He divorced my mum due to her affair and remarried a woman he’d met on the internet who was 25yrs younger and moved to be with her. He also got 3 small step children as part of the deal. He moved away for a new life and I was left with a dad shaped hole in mine. He tried to keep in touch with phone calls and stuff and they visited a couple of times but not regularly. I tried to visit him as much as I could and latterly tried annually. He recently died of neutropenic sepsis. I worried about him getting older and suffering from lymphoma and I know his wife struggled with him getting older. ( don’t get me started on why she didn’t rush him to er as soon as he got a low grade fever 3 weeks post chemo) . He was almost 80 and she is 55. I rushed to be by his bedside as he was dying and she made it very clear that he’d left nothing to me, it is all in her name, and although he wrote a will he never signed a will. SHe showed me a printed copy of the eulogy that he wrote that doesn’t name me and just mentions in a sentence that he missed his daughters. AIBU to be wraught with grief and anger? AIBU to be angry with her. She has made multiple snide comments about me suggesting he preferred his stepchildren who rarely saw him and made no effort.

OP posts:
ExplodingSmittens · 09/10/2026 18:21

I really struggled with the loss of my DF, I think with your situation you have double grief of feeling like he chose to live with the new family and not prioritise his relationship with you. I’m so, so sorry for your loss Flowers

madaboutpurple · 09/10/2026 19:22

OP, I would like to add I am also sorry for your loss. Be kind to yourself. I send a bouquet of flowers over the internet to you.

NotAnotherScarf · 09/10/2026 19:41

You have every right to be angry. With your father to some extent I am sure. But she needs only your contempt. She is a horrible person and to not mention you is vile.

It happened to my cousin recently at her father's funeral. She's not one to accept shit so she loudly told her dad's partner exactly what she thought of her at the wake in front of the partners friends and family.

Given you have been financially shafted and have nothing to lose...

HettyTagliatelli · 09/10/2026 20:13

Your step mother sounds like a bitch, but she doesn’t deserve your energy.

Your father sounds like he made some questionable choices, possibly due to his hurt over your mother’s affair, but he loved you. He may have had his own weaknesses that stopped him from doing as much as he could have done to make sure you felt loved and supported, but you will never really know, and you definitely won’t learn anything truthful from a nasty controlling wife.

Focus on what you knew of your Dad from the interactions and experiences you shared with him. I’m so sorry for your loss and I hope you can find some peace.

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