Reality show, my hairy arse
Somebody really oughta take all these puffed-up Hollywood narcissists to a place where reality isn't meticulously scripted and interlaced with skin-care commercials... and rub their face in some smelly, mouldering truth...
He doesn't understand why attendants come in every day. Doesn't understand why we locked the medications away. Doesn't understand why we took the car away. And most heartbreakingly, doesn't understand how his wife died. He remembers that she died, but not how.It should somehow make it it easier that "nobody gets out alive"... but standing by and watching a loved one slowing winding down... it's a bitch.
He remembers himself as young and strong - climbing mountains and teaching beginning physics - he doesn't remember that yesterday he lost his house key and couldn't find his pants.
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3 comments:
Neo
Just what I needed to put things in perspective. My Dad is facing a life threatening ailment but he still has his mind and will.
Grandpa had neither at the end and that hurt the most.
Syncro
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"sync says... put things in perspective"
i guess this piece really hit home because we're approaching the anniversary of finding mrs neo's dad in pretty dire physical straits down in toronto. it was so bad, we ended up bringing him out here to live with us.
the initial diagnosis was diabetes... but g-dad is starting to slip pretty hard mentally. despite regularly making noises about going back home... i think he realises, on some level, that just isn't gonna happen.
it's hard to watch the not so gradual decline, and at some point the burden of care will be too much for us, but the truth is... if he goes to a nursing home he will almost certainly just will himself to death in very short order.
he's coherent most of the time, but the short-term memory is turning to jello. for example, just last week, he asked once again where his wife was.
well, she died in 1989.
see... the cold, hard fact is... the wolf inevitably comes for us all.
this whole discussion on the homesteading forum put me in mind of that infamous quote... "getting old isn't for sissies".
you just gotta hope you go fast and painless when your card turns up. i know i do.
anyway... i hope things with your dad go as well as they possibly can.
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Well said and thanks.
Syncro
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