Do the Right Thing

A Strained Relationship with an Ailing Father

Janet had worked hard to turn her life around. After dropping out of high school ten years ago, her relationship with her father had deteriorated to the point where she left the house, and was living out of state. Still, her disappointment in herself and her desire to regain her father’s favor motivated Janet to complete her high school equivalency exam and enroll in community college. Unfortunately, while she was putting her life back together, her father’s health was failing. A lifetime of diabetes and a recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was taking its toll. Hoping to begin to heal the relationship between Janet and her father, Janet’s older sister, Tanya, invited Janet to their father’s 75th birthday party. Janet happily accepted, seeing the invitation as an opportunity to tell her father that she had completed her associate’s degree and had been accepted into a four-year college.

In the weeks before the birthday party, Janet’s father began to speak quite harshly about Janet. On one particular Sunday afternoon, while Tanya was visiting, her father spoke openly about his disappointment in Janet. Two days later he passed away in his sleep. In quiet conversation at the wake, Janet asked Tanya if her father ever talked about her. How should Tanya respond?

E-mail your thoughts to dotherightthing@udmercy.edu.

See the responses to the last Do the Right Thing case, Kyle and His Future Brothers-in-Law