Doctors keep arriving at the house, predicting doom soon and leaving only to be confounded a day or two later.
I've been getting calls from my mum regularly suggesting he's not going to make it through the coming night. Of course, I panic each time, with thoughts that I'll never see him again in this age.
In a flurry of preparations to travel, she tells me not to panic. Meantime, three kids and a partner and a job tie me down here with business as usual, 240 miles away from this particular, time-sensitive action. Then when I finally travel up, I see my dad looking quite good for an apparent, near-death kind of guy.
When analysing this phenomenon in detail, I come to the conclusion that his expectations of my imminent arrival actually help to alleviate the situation. It's literally "one day at a time" for him. My mum said recently that my dad tangibly "perks-up" at the prospect of seeing me. I'm very happy to make such a difference.
A true trick my mum has developed is to posit a possibility of something new happening in the near future. These planned occurrences can spur my dad to hopefulness that sustains him through all the sleep he needs to enable him to build up the energy to do them.
He told me today that his next goal was to ride in their new car again. After that, he plans to see their new garage door in operation. So I told him that I had a picture from some years ago of him standing in front of the Menai Bridge in Anglesey. I promised to bring it for him on my next visit.
Today, my mum had decided to celebrate her own birthday by holding a get together for 8: she, my dad, my sister and family, the woman from across the road, who's a bit of a GILF and another woman I've never met but whose husband suddenly died a couple of weeks ago when he tripped on a pavement kerb and fell over. For fuck's sake.
Go on...tell me, did you try to work out how many children my sister had?
My mum's just told me I'm at the end of the dinner table, on widow-charming duty. We have 2 widows coming - can you tell me where at least one of them lived?
Last time I was put on divorcee-entertainment duty, somebody very nearly got fucked. We had to open the window to get rid of the fragrance of soaked panties.
I'm glad I'm not Charles Gonzo.
And life goes on...
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3 comments:
Hi Charles,we can only hope his exit is peaceful and pray your mom has strength to carry on. My dad had lou gehrig's which is most unpleasant, my friends dad just sat in his favorite chair and passed away, his wife came to wake him up for dinner and found he was gone,massive stroke,but little suffering.
Now you won't be surprised I think but at my dad's funeral men were hitting on my mom, now that she was a single gal and she can cook maybe they could hook up? Mom hasn't remarried, she enjoys having the remote control to the tv she says, but she is getting older.
It isn't easy even when you know the time is close Charles, and after they go it suddenly becomes our turn to depart. When my dad left my niece came into my brother n sister n laws room n woke em up at 4 am an said an angel said grandpa is gone but he is ok and not to worry it will be fine. My bro figured she had a bad dream and told her to get in bed with them an go back to sleep, an later found out dad passed away around 4 am in the morning.
I hope only the best for your family Charles, it's a rough patch to be sure, but we will live on and honor those who go before us the best we can. Tell them hello for me, from America and give them my best,you can tell your dad I pinched Maggie Thatchers knickers once, but I won't reveal what I was doing so close to them in the first place,it was one of those "need to know" situations,bill
Maggie's panties might fetch a pretty penny on Ebay™, depending on their general condition, etc. I had a waking dream about you, Mrs Hoosierdaddy & grill guru Steve Raichlen. Beers were in abundance. Hope you have a good weekend.
I was wondering about your dad the other day. I'm so glad he's hanging in there. Rough year for you with all that traveling and worrying about him, but at least he is still around. Take care.
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