My dad died over 10 years ago… we didn’t have a good relationship and I probably didn’t see him 10 years before he died.

Recently, I was speaking with a young pilot. My dad was also a hobby-flyer. He was actually the only survivor of a plane crash and spent days with his dead friends before he was found. He rarely talked about it. Revisiting this experience unexpectedly was very surprising for me. I could finally empathize with what this trauma might have impacted his entire life. I found myself wondering if/what our relationship might have been like before this life-changing event which happened before I was born.