Well it happened, after many years of battling Parkinson’s, my father finally lost his fight.
I have to say I am glad he no longer has to suffer the pain and the indignity that he was subjected to in his final months. For someone who lived his life with honor, honesty and hard work he had a great deal of difficulty becoming helpless and dependent on others for his most basic of needs.
What was really interesting however is that when he was finally gone, It was like his last few months and even years were no longer the focus of our thoughts. Our father, grandfather and uncle of days gone by, began to re emerge and there was a collective celebration of the man we knew and loved.
There was no sadness or pity about the way my father left this world but only feelings of gratitude and happiness for having known someone who always did his best to make the lives of his family and friends better for having been touched by his humour or his gargantuan helping hands.
Myself, I have to thank him for giving me his uncommon patience, selflessness and sense of humour. These are things I will take with me to my grave and hope friends and family will remember me for when it is my time to leave this world.
I will miss my father more than I could ever express in this blog but I am comforted by knowing that I have had the good fortune to have been his son.
Thanks dad!
So sorry to hear about your dad, but thankful that you had such a great father and that you have so many fond memories.
I will be praying for you and your family.
.-= Jeff @BecomingABetterDad´s last blog ..Spiritual Training Program =-.
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the condolences My family and I appreciate that.
Unfortunately it is that stage in life which happens to us all and for those of us who are lucky, we can reflect on how great it was to have a parent(s) that actually parented.
The events of that past week have re enforced my conviction that “we” as a society have absolved our responsibility to parent our children as our parents parented us. We instead have surrendered this responsibility to anyone who is willing to step up and take on this responsibility.
We defer our gut instincts to the advice of the “experts”. We have pawned off the responsibility of teaching our children the lessons of life to our public schools. We avoid spending time with our kids in the name “providing them opportunities” and over schedule their days and nights.
Life has become more about avoiding parenting than actual parenting.
All I can say is thank god for the parents I had.
So sorry about your dad but happy to hear that he led such a full life.
.-= Tracey´s last blog ..Insomnia post #324 =-.