Dave Shuffett thought he was prepared for the death of his father.

Bill Shuffett had lived a full life before dying two years ago at age 84. By his son’s account, he was a hero dad, a guy who passed up the chance to play baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals to serve in World War II, where he earned several honors, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Later, after a divorce, he became a single father of three until he remarried.

“He was this baseball star, war-hero dad who came home and devoted his life to his kids,” Shuffett, host of Kentucky Life on Kentucky Educational Television, says of his dad, who lived in Greensburg. “He was, for me, larger than life.”

He lived a complete, long life. And Dave figured he would be ready to carry on after the inevitable.

But his life fell apart.

“When we lost him, my whole world turned upside down,” says Shuffett.

He was on a lonely journey, thinking he was a unique case until he found a book while doing an Internet search: FatherLoss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms With the Deaths of Their Dads.

It was the only book he could find on the subject, and he was surprised to find that the author, Neil Chethik, lives in Lexington.

Shuffett reached out to Chethik, and initially thought about doing a segment on the book on Kentucky Life.

But KET programming director Craig Cornwell saw more.

“Dave was really hurting after his father died, and I didn’t think five minutes was enough time to express it,” Cornwell said. “It had the makings of a good story.”

Shuffett’s journey weaves through the half-hour FatherLoss: A Kentucky Life Special, which premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

It’s a sort of video version of Chethik’s book interwoven with Shuffett’s story and the stories of several other area men who have lost their fathers. That group includes KET filmmaker Frank Simkonis, Lexington Family Magazine editor John Lynch and Herald-Leader editorial cartoonist Joel Pett.

The intention was to get a diverse group of experiences, from people who lost their fathers young to ones whose dads died later; dads who died suddenly and ones who had longer exits, allowing time for resolution; from hero dads like Shuffett’s to some contentious relationships.

Chethik says the death of a father is an acute loss for most men because men and boys tend to view their dads as larger than life and invincible, so dealing with their ultimate departure can be difficult.

“Their death can be absolutely shocking to us,” Chethik says in the show. “It changes the inner landscape of a man to lose his father, no matter what age.”

Most men also deal with the same thing: Society’s expectation that men keep their feelings to themselves.

“Very few men talk to each other about it,” Chethik says. “I have been reading dozens of letters from men saying, ‘I thought I was the only one who felt this way,’ after reading the book.”

Chethik, writer-in-residence at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, has published two books on men and emotions, FatherLoss and VoiceMale: What Husbands Really Think About Their Marriages, Their Wives, Sex, Housework and Commitment.

Chethik says that while VoiceMale had a big initial splash and then leveled off, FatherLoss has sold steadily over the years. He suspects that’s because there are always more men grappling with the grief of losing their dads, and his book is one of the only resources that addresses the issue.

“Every man is going to react in a different way, and you can’t predict your reaction,” Chethik says.

He has found that people are surprised to discover his father is still alive.

“It’s funny, because I have basically lived this story for the past 10 or 15 years, but I know when my father dies, I don’t know if I’m going to take it like a life-changing event or I’m going to feel resolved with everything. I just don’t know.”

He says the lesson is that there are ways to increase the possibilities of peace and resolution, like spending time together and keeping in touch.

“I’ve got my personal checklist of things to do to keep my father and my mother as connected as possible in the later years of life,” Chethik says.

Still, when it happens, there will be those moments that “hit you like a ton of bricks,” Shuffett says, “when you realize he’s not there anymore.”

He and Chethik are proud that through their efforts, men can have a book and film to help them cope and realize they are not alone when those moments come.