Things I appreciated  about you, Daddy:  your encouraging me to write creatively, your encouraging me to draw;  your teaching and  coaching me to play tennis; your intelligent and lively mind; your sense of humor, and the day I left my homework at home and you chased the city bus downtown to give it to me.

Things I resented about you: your lack of work ethic; your lying in bed all the time you were home; your sense of entitlement–it seemed you thought the world owed you a lot that you really didn’t deserve; the way you treated Mother; your molesting me; your scrambling up my mind with conflicting messages about sex and life; your lack of insight into your problems; your being willing to subject the family to your alcoholic lifestyle; your insisting I return home when I had the chance of a much better life with my maternal grandparents; your frightening me when you staggered through the house.

Things I regret : that you remained a weak victim of your father’s molestation that you suffered, and did not become a  father I could respect, that you gave up on yourself and tried to live your life through me. I’m afraid that covers it all.  Goodbye to you and all that.