Man - this story reminded me of an experience I went through. I was in HS and took a trigonometry/analytic geometry when I was a Jr. Trig was hard but AG was insanely hard for me. Up until that class I had never really had to work hard to understand any math topic...they all just came so easily to me. In fact my geometry teacher, the year before, kept asking me if his math was right because I would correct his errors so much.

Anyways, this lead to a serious complex for me about math and especially trigonometry. For some reason, it terrified me and I had gone over and over that experience so much in my mind that I never wanted to address it.

In my late 30s I went back to University to pursue a second degree and I had to have calculus. Trig was a prerequisite and I was terrified but I had finally had enough. I was no longer going to be ashamed of my lack of trig knowledge nor was I going to run from my fear of this class. Instead I was determined to conquer it once and for all.

It was hard and I worked my ass off during that class. To make matters worse, my best friend died right as the class was starting AND it was summer school which is much faster paced at Uni. Then to top all that off I was taking like 10 hours of summer school which is like 21 hours of regular semester school.....I thought, "I've totally screwed myself yet again with this damned trig class"

Well I was not about to let this shit stop me so I knuckled down and worked even harder, slept less and would not be deterred. I ended up getting a VERY high A in the class inspire of dealing with massive grief all summer.

I'm going to be 50 next year and conquering this fear has been one of the best decisions and experiences of my life. It wasn't easy but now that I'm on the "other side of it", I'm beyond thrilled that I finally addressed it.

Your dad is very talented and I hope he pics up painting again sometime soon.