I struggled for years with my feelings in regards to my father's behavior at the end of phone conversations. I would end by saying "Dad, I love you." And his reply was merely, "OK." I experienced anger and feelings of abandonment and frustration at what I felt was this man's inability to express such a simple emotion. Then one day when I hung up, I felt a surge of empathy as I realized that it was possible his father had rarely told him that he loved him. It came to me that this was possibly just an issue of translation. When I looked at my father's other behaviors toward me, I could see clearly that his actions were evidence that he loved me. So, I thought why not accept my father's response of "OK." as an expression of his love. The next couple of phone calls when he responded with "OK.", in my mind I took responsibility for translating this into what it truly meant, "I love you son. And I'm proud of you."