TORONTO

A 59-year-old man may have been suffering from mental health issues and looking for help when last seen at a Downsview hospital.

Three weeks later, family members are trying to remain optimistic while searching for answers in Frank Lista’s sudden unexplained disappearance.

“We’re shifting between grief and hope,” said Brandon Vecchiola, the eldest of the missing man’s five children.

The 31-year-old London man, who was in Toronto putting up posters and doing whatever he can, said his dad has struggled with depression and anxiety throughout his life.

And while Vecchiola was aware his father was headed to Humber River Hospital to get help on Nov. 3, he didn’t realize “the extent to which he was suffering.”

Now he and his siblings are preparing for the worst but hoping their dad is found safe.

“The best-case scenario may be that he has had a total psychotic break and is wandering the streets begging for change,” Vecchiola said.

Lista was seen by a security camera at the hospital on Wilson Ave., west of Keele St., around 11:20 a.m. Nov. 3 and hasn’t been seen since.

Vecchiola said his dad’s disappearance is “odd,” especially since he has full custody of his 16-year-old daughter, who he would “never intentionally abandon.”

Lista also has two grown daughters, ages 24 and 22, and has shared custody of his nine-year-old son.

Vecchiola said his dad left his glasses and his winter coat at home. And since his disappearance, there has been no activity with his bank account or phone.

“I believe that if he was able to, he would have contacted us by now,” said Vecchiola, who usually has weekly contact with his “loving” father.

The family is asking people to check their yards and for business owners to have a look in any vacant properties for clues about Lista’s whereabouts.

Lista is 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds, with grey shoulder-length hair and a grey beard. He was last seen wearing a beige ball cap with “LF Builders” on the front, a black jacket, blue jeans and black shoes.

A vigil is planned Nov. 30 at St. Chad’s Anglican Church, on Dufferin St., just south of Eglinton Ave. W.

cdoucette@postmedia.com