Dad is sick

Dad is sick…

Seriously sick…

He wasn’t a couple of months ago when I was here after Mom’s death… He was healthy, vital, planning for a long future…

Dad is never sick.

Now he is sick… He had a friend drive him to the emergency room a week ago or so… he hurt, couldn’t sleep… had trouble chewing food…

He isn’t a complainer… He works through it… but this wasn’t working… he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat… He was in pain…

He was admitted… they acknowledged he was sick… they didn’t know why or how… He is old… 83 years Monday… I don’t know if they thought that his illness was age or…? This might be an issue… Mom died recently… at least one Dr. suggested that he wanted to die… She was wrong… but didn’t really care…

T and I had a trip planned… a trip to New Orleans for the Rotary Convention… We were on the road… Dad had a friend… a close friend, the extra brother… call, and tell us he was in the hospital… this was huge…. Dad does not bother us with his minor issues… Dad was in the hospital…

He didn’t want us to worry… (we worry whether he wants us to or not)

T and I headed to New Orleans… for the Rotary Convention… Dad was on our minds… Always…

We arrived… did dinner at Commander’s Palace… The next day we participated in a Rotary project at the New Orleans Mission… We helped build a library… It was good…

Conversations with Dad suggested all was not as well as hoped… Dad was sicker than expected and getting worse… We began to make plans…

We dined at Mulate’s with our club, along with Tina’s step mother… her surviving mother… family… But, Dad was in the back of our minds…

By Saturday morning we decided… we needed to leave… a plan was hatched… drive to Florida on Sunday… The plan had many parts… re-write the airline tickets… rent a car… go… Sunday morning we left the hotel early and took a cab to the rent a car lot on Canal Street… from there it was left to get on I-10… then a right on to Hwy 19 in Florida 400 miles later… followed by a left onto Cortez Blvd maybe 150 miles later… the Hospital was on the left side… The trip was just under 600 miles across 4 states, with only three turns…

We saw Dad… He was in pain but awake… It was all downhill from there…