first post: father's day. warning: depressing post.

this is a difficult day for much of my family. starting with Mom, her father (a successful chemist)committed suicide when she was 3. her mother told her some kind of tale about his death, never told her about the suicide. she grew up an only child with no father and a mother who wouldn't talk about him.
then on to my Southern niece and nephew, their dad committed suicide on father's day. I always think about how terribly difficult this day must be for them, especially with all of the advertising and media pieces about dads.
my West Coast niece and nephew are more fortunate, their dad is around, very involved and caring, but is not without his problems.
coming full circle to me, my father (the father of the 2 dads discussed on the above 2 paragraphs) died of cancer 12 years ago. before his death he really was a mixed bag as a father: very involved but with a terrible, frightening temper before my parents got divorced, and about as uninvolved as he could get after the divorce.
so, when people either laud or complain about their fathers, I think: they really don't know how much worse they could have had it. And on father's day, I really feel for all of the people who have less than fond memories of their fathers, and have to be vivdly reminded of it on this day.