Is there anything I [22F] can do for my [61M] embittered father?

My father has always been my idol. He is the most selfless, loving, family-oriented man I’ve ever met. He’s always been the big jovial guy that everyone loves.

Without turning this into a novel, I will say that my father has had a rough life and there have been many unlucky circumstances for him. His own father was mentally unwell, and he abused his kids & wife for many years before turning a gun on himself. When my father got older, he met my mom and that became a tumultuous relationship. Infidelity, manipulation & betrayal.

As I was growing up, he got laid off from his job and started his own business. He’s had a lot of financial success in recent years. He just doesn’t have a “businessman’s mindset” and he does way too many favours. He’s a mechanic and he keeps letting people ‘pay in installments’ even though half of them are never to be seen again. Whenever a single mother comes along, he fixes her car for free every month.

Needless to say, he’s become the guy on the block who is easily fooled. People go back to him over and over, knowing they can take advantage of his good fortune. My father has become so bitter, angry, and jaded. I’ve watched the most jovial man I ever met slowly turn into an angry, resentful person.

I think all the years of being the good guy have worn on him. I worry he will spend his last years miserable, or that he will have an early death from all of the stress. Sometimes I pass him in the hallway, and I don’t even recognize him anymore. The only time I catch a glimpse of his old self is when the whole family is together.

I wish there was something I could do. He trusts me, and I know he might listen to me if I had some sort of insight or something that can help him. As his daughter, is there anything I can do for him?

Tl;dr - My dad has had a rough life, and I’ve seen it turn him into a bitter man from the happy-go-lucky guy he once was. As his daughter, is there anything I can do to help him?

Submitted January 26, 2021 at 11:39AM by tropicalsadness https://ift.tt/3j1rUtP