My Father the Hero
This is not a review of the movie. It's a story about a difficult task that I couldn't have done without him.
My best friend D asked me to check on her father while I was at home. He's in a adult-care facility because he has Alzheimer's-which has been difficult for her whole family and also brought up a host of other problems as well. So she asked me to look in on him. I was a little baffled by this because he hadn't seen me in over 20 years. And I was also a little resentful and angry-this is a guy who has NEVER recognized how awesome his children are-he always played favorites-and whoever was doing best at the time was his favorite. he was always fairly nice to me but seeing what he did to them made me angry. And she wanted me to go see him? I really didn't want to go-but the more I thought about, the more I knew that I had to do for a couple of reasons. #1 was the fact that she asked me. OF COURSE she asked me. How could she not? Who else could she ask? There was no one else she could ask to do this and know that she would get my honest opinion. So I guess that was the one reason that I knew I had to do it and I knew if I asked my Dad that he would come with-he'd met her father a few times-so I think she was hoping he might remember us both.
We found him at the facility after a bit of searching. And here's where my Dad was my hero-because I didn't know what to say after saying hello. my Mom always says (not so nicely) that my Dad can always find something to say to anyone and thank you Jesus that he can because I sat there like a bump on a log at a total loss for words. My dad, on the other hand, asked him easy questions (do you like it here? How's the food? Are the people nice?) that he could answer without much trouble. It was awesome. My Dad is not a perfect person (who is?) but he was a star that day.
The visit was not long-ten minutes, tops and I think I said 20 words. My Dad did all the heavy lifting. All of it. We left and I threw my arms and told him the truth-I couldn't have done this without you. And I couldn't have-it just wouldn't have been possible.
Thank you, Dad. It's true, I could not have done without you and D appreciated it even more than I.
And then he bought me $50 worth of chocolate-it was either that or alcohol and chocolate was a better choice.
My best friend D asked me to check on her father while I was at home. He's in a adult-care facility because he has Alzheimer's-which has been difficult for her whole family and also brought up a host of other problems as well. So she asked me to look in on him. I was a little baffled by this because he hadn't seen me in over 20 years. And I was also a little resentful and angry-this is a guy who has NEVER recognized how awesome his children are-he always played favorites-and whoever was doing best at the time was his favorite. he was always fairly nice to me but seeing what he did to them made me angry. And she wanted me to go see him? I really didn't want to go-but the more I thought about, the more I knew that I had to do for a couple of reasons. #1 was the fact that she asked me. OF COURSE she asked me. How could she not? Who else could she ask? There was no one else she could ask to do this and know that she would get my honest opinion. So I guess that was the one reason that I knew I had to do it and I knew if I asked my Dad that he would come with-he'd met her father a few times-so I think she was hoping he might remember us both.
We found him at the facility after a bit of searching. And here's where my Dad was my hero-because I didn't know what to say after saying hello. my Mom always says (not so nicely) that my Dad can always find something to say to anyone and thank you Jesus that he can because I sat there like a bump on a log at a total loss for words. My dad, on the other hand, asked him easy questions (do you like it here? How's the food? Are the people nice?) that he could answer without much trouble. It was awesome. My Dad is not a perfect person (who is?) but he was a star that day.
The visit was not long-ten minutes, tops and I think I said 20 words. My Dad did all the heavy lifting. All of it. We left and I threw my arms and told him the truth-I couldn't have done this without you. And I couldn't have-it just wouldn't have been possible.
Thank you, Dad. It's true, I could not have done without you and D appreciated it even more than I.
And then he bought me $50 worth of chocolate-it was either that or alcohol and chocolate was a better choice.
posted by SHbookworm at 4:45 PM
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