Design for Life: Should I visit my estranged father in hospital?

This week, occupational psychologist Louize Carroll advises a reader who is in two minds over whether to say goodbye to the father who abandoned them as a child

It is a good idea to go and visit your estranged father on his hospital bed, and it is a good idea not to go. Picture: Getty

Dear Expert,

I haven't spoken to my father in 20 years, ever since he left the family home, leaving my mother to raise us. Recently, I received information that he is extremely unwell and would like to see me and my siblings in hospital.

This news has been very difficult to take, as he never contributed to raising us financially or emotionally. I believe he wants now, at this point in his life, to be ...