Marmz

Mrs A lost her mum to cancer a few years back and her grief continues, Birthdays and Christmas have been difficult times.
I've lost my father to dementia and continue to do so over and over, it's a cruel disease.
It is indeed. I'd refrained from posting this because it's highly personal, but here goes:
Three weeks ago I found out that my father, whom I haven't seen in nearly six years (and had assumed was dead) is still alive.
The last time I saw him (as you're aware) he was in the early stages of dementia, caused (or exacerbated) by his alcoholism. It had reached the stage where he would sometimes mistake me for his brother, regress into childhood and very occasionally physically attack me. I tried to maintain a relationship, but he stopped returning calls, answering the door or answering letters. Which he would occasionally do anyway, before the deterioration. He was a 'difficult' guy. Maybe that's where I get it from. Maybe.
I assumed he'd get back in contact but it never happened, and with the redevelopment of the area in which he lives, he was rehoused. So I had nowhere to look for him.
Eventually, through my sister's hard work, his carer got in touch. He's living in sheltered housing and seems to be in a bad way. The carer can't say exactly how bad, but six years ago he was becoming unrecognisable outside of his moments of lucidity, so I dread to think.
I have an address for him and I intend to write a letter, as my sister has done already. Only I'm terrified.
This man was absent from my life for long periods, both in childhood and adulthood, yet he's my only living parent and the one I feel the least ambiguous towards, despite all his faults. The fucker threw me out of his house on Christmas Day once. Yet I love him.
I love him, and I miss the man I used to sit and sing drunken rebel songs with while he told me stories about the middle east. I know that this man is still 'here', but I don't know if he's actually still
here.
I hate the fact I'm too cowardly to even begin a letter, but where do you start? Will he even want me back in his life?
Death I could have dealt with, but this is going to be a tough one.
