My father passed away on February 20. I spent 12 years dealing with the tragedy of his disease. Now, I am free to experience the sorrow of this loss. My father was the best thing that ever happened to me because he was the one who made sure we all went to church when...
Growing up, I went to church three times a week, and even when I wasn't listening to my dad's sermons, some part of me was paying attention. My recall of things I didn't know I knew surprises me sometimes. Often, my father pounded the pulpit in fits of hell, fire, and...
Sometimes, my father would joke, "I feel like I'm fading." Other times, sitting across the table from me at breakfast, he'd tell me he felt out of sorts. I'd ask him what he meant, and he'd wave a firm palm in front of his face and say, "Just out of it." Sometimes,...
From a house on a hill a sacred light shines I walk through these rooms but none of them are mine Down empty hallways I went from door to door Searching for my beautiful reward -- From Springsteen and Beautiful Reward By broadest definition, Generation X begins in...
Today is my father's 80th birthday. Wow. Happy Birthday, DB! You mean the world to me! --YBG *** I saw my father today. I walked into his room to find him staring out the window. He was wearing cranberry-colored sweats. My father would not have been caught dead in...
In the early days of my father's Alzheimer's diagnosis, I visited him several times a week. I picked him up every Saturday morning in my Jeep and took him to breakfast at IHOP. Sometimes, Robert and I visited him during evenings for coffee. We'd wheel him down...
I pray the Lord to set me free May you never be alone like me. -- from Hank Williams Sr. I sit with my father in the dining room at the nursing home. It is lunchtime and every table is filled with quiet people sitting in wheelchairs. Some of them look crazy. Some of...
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober As the leaves that were crisped and sere - As the leaves that were withering and sere; And I cried: "It was surely October On this very night of last year That I journeyed - I journeyed down here! - That I brought a dread burden...
Do you recall the short little man in the Dunkin Donuts commercials, the one who got up before dawn every morning to make the donuts? In a zombie-like state, he’d repeat over and over, “It’s time to make the donuts.” In one commercial, he runs into himself, only to...
Anchors Aweigh, my boys Anchors Aweigh --From the song of the United States Navy On Saturday, I visited my father at the nursing home. When he saw me, he called me Becky, and when I told him I wasn't Becky, he called me Willinda, and when I told him I wasn't Willinda...
A couple of weeks ago, I was pushing a cart down the aisle of a thrift store. To my left was a rack filled with dozens of linens, blankets, and drapes and to my right were shelves full of toys and stuffed animals. And just there in the middle of that stupid aisle, I...
“…And I wish I could tell you in appropriate words, how very proud I am of you; not for what you have been, and not for what you are, but for what I know you will be, in years to come. Not the least among these things is the quiet reassurance I have in my...