A very good friend of mine recently told me that right from when he was 2 years old his Dad used to beat him, sexually abuse him and lock him in a cupboard all night in the dark and that spiders used to crawl on his face when he was asleep (hence his pathological fear of spiders, which was what we were talking about at the time). His Mum was an alcoholic and didn't care enough to stop the abuse or leave the Dad.
He's been a drug addict (now rehabbed) and suffered from depression & low self esteem all his life and is really only just now, at age 40+ coming to terms with himself and starting to enjoy his life a little.
Before you offer, as I did, to throw his Dad from a tall building, no need as he did it himself a while back..or so my friend says. It could be that this is a mechanism he uses to give himself closure and that he really doesn't know what became of his Dad, I'm not sure. I imagine it must be difficult to sleep, thinking that he might be still out there somewhere.
Now go kiss your Dad folks. Better still, take him out for a pint of whatever he likes and listen to some of his same-old same-old stories for a while.
Peace.
Cozmik
