Dad

My dad is not doing too well. He was told it was time to go on dialysis and has refused. They stabilized him at the hospital and sent him home. He's deteriorating rapidly, but of course, no one knows how long he has. Could be a week, or a couple months. So, instead of waiting till October as planned, Stephen and the family came from Kentucky this past weekend. He looks terrible to me, pale and exhausted from just breathing. He has a visiting nurse, and she is great. we talked about diet and water restriction and getting to the bathroom. Hospice evaluated him, but not on duty yet, not yet because then he can't see his regular doctors. He's on oxygen. Has a couple of tanks, one for getting to the bathroom. He gets winded so fast. It is hard to believe in that context that we could tell funny stories. It was a wake with dad there.

When I first arrived, dad was watching Patch Adams. It was the part where Robin Williams is dressed like an angel and gave a 5 minute definition of death. I'll have to insert that monologue into another post. It was surreal to say the least.

He knows that he is on his way to death, but he is still talking about seeing the ophthalmologist to see about getting eye surgery in the other eye. That's not going to happen.

All the siblings were together today, all day. We had a really nice chicken dinner, sort of an early thanksgiving. It was a great time telling stories, playing with Carter, Kelly and Jack and taking pictures. The weather was perfect. Taking walks, teaching Kelly (7) to blow bubblegum bubbles. I gave them each a book and a refrigerator magnet that I had made. We will not forget this day for many years. I made them all copies of the watercolor that I did of the family icons, the things that were just always there for so many years because they didn't redecorate. The lamp, the clock, stuff like that. They all loved it. I started a second one and there will probably be a third in a series. Everything was so poignant. I might make something with just dad's sayings on it.

I got nothing done on my schoolwork, so I am taking a personal day tomorrow to finish one paper and get some reading done for my upcoming class October 6.

This semester is going to be so interesting with this death as a backdrop. the core is Marriage and Family and we'll be doing genealogies, looking at our families of origin, and then Forgiveness on Saturdays. This should be good. Stay tuned.