Hmm... something to worry about?

My parents had me very young. My mother was 16 and my dad was about 18 (if I do the maths right in my head). So I have fairly youngish parents still (although, given that I'm pushing 40, maybe they're not so young anymore!). My mother has battled cancer for a few years now.. I'm dealing with that and doing ok. My father. Hmm.. well my father. He's a bit of a shit. He has spent most of his life in and out of jail. I only met him when I was about 23. Didn't know about him until I was 17. Trying to keep a long story short, we are quite close. He went back to jail a few years ago for an offence in another state. That means he has to serve his time in that State. So I haven't seen him more than once in the last few years. I was pregnant with Robbie and he is now 2 so that gives an idea of how long he's been there. I've gone through all the motions of dealing with it. I've come out the other side with the realisation that he is who he is. I can choose to continue loving him or wipe him completely. I can't wipe him. However, I have not told his oldest Grandson where he is. Zak worships the ground he walks on. He thinks Grandad has been away working. Thank goodness kids don't have a real understanding of time. Anyhoo, back to the story. As I said, he's still pretty young 50 something. I got a birthday card from him earlier this week. My birthday is in July. Zak's birthday is this Saturday. It's really disturbing me. It's so unlike him. And I know he will be feeling so bad about it. It's eating away at me. Obviously I can't call him whenever I'd like to talk to him about it. I have to wait for him to call me. I can't imagine him calling me anytime soon because he's going to be embarrassed. I spoke to his partner tonight about it. She is a bit worried too. I hate having those little niggling worries eating away at me. It bothers me.

xx