This series of blogs is focused the relationships between men and their fathers…in many cases absent fathers.  My father, who was absent for much of my life in many ways, lived with me for 10 months.  He was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer/Dementia in 2016.  In March 2017 I finally had to move him into an assisted living facility; he became too much for my wife and me to handle, especially my wife who was his primary care giver.  Then recently we had to move to the memory care unit of that facility.  His condition had deteriorated to the extent that he needed additional care, more so than what assisted living provided. And most recently, he succumbed to a heart condition and passed.

There are many ironies in this situation.  One of them was that as I became my father’s keeper – his caretaker…a man who has not devoted hardly any attention to me since I left my diaper stage.  My desire is to share some of my experiences and to help other men navigate the feelings and effects of being fatherless – and to show how only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only sure way to overcome the negative residue of fatherlessness.