the fathers story
All my life I have had a reputation that I was able mend anything. Friends and neighbours would come to the door with "Daddy mends" as they were called. This still happens even today. I also was a qualified Social Worker and on retirement spent 12 years as a C A B Advisor and was expected to solve problems.
At first I thought my daughter was work shy and did not want to hold down a job but have now realised that the problems went deeper than that. I should have, from experience of approving Blue/ Orange Badges, realised that people often appeared fit on the outside but with underlying problems. I often had to deal with complaints that "Mrs So & So is perfectly fit and has a badge so why have you refused mine"? Dealing with my daughters problems presents me with difficulties in that for once I don't have the answer. I would love to help but there is little I can do and have to accept that all I can really do is listen. In many ways I am divorced from the problem as she has her own grown up supportive family and all I can do is watch her suffer. In many ways I would like to make excuses for her but feel that her medical symptoms are no ones business but her own.
I am proud that she is doing a degree with the OU and draw pleasure from the fact that she has discovered writing and is getting a great deal of pleasure from putting pen, or should I say computer to paper which I also enjoy.
My one sadness is that I don't have an easy answer and for once "Daddy can, to mend".