My whole life I’ve grown up without a father only being raised by my mum, while it hasn’t been easy I’m now 20 and am definitely aware that I never needed him since mum did a great job on her own so I’ve now become some what angry as any kid who’s father willingly walked out on what was supposed to be his family, anyway fast forward to last week.

I received a Facebook message from a cousin I haven’t heard from in 10 years saying that my dad had a stroke and is in hospital and he’s okay just has to stay in, my only response was “thanks for the message” the next day he told me he had a 9 hour heart surgery and I basically replied with the same thing, mind you I was out having drinks with some friends when I heard this and I haven’t heard or seen from my dad since I was 13 so it was a bit of a crazy text to receive out of nowhere.

I told my mum the next day as it wasn’t my biggest priority and she seemed quite worried whilst I said “I don’t really care” and she got angry saying he’s still my dad, and while this is true and I would never wish this upon anyone I still can’t seem to find a reason why suddenly this will affect me, he hasn’t been in my life and I barely know things about him, so it’s hard for me to feel emotions to what I can almost describe as a stranger, I’ve told my mum that what happens to him good or bad doesn’t change my life but she wasn’t too pleased with that, and while I’m still yet to find out how he recovers I’m stuck here asking myself if I’m TA?