Significance

First of all, I want to say a hearty and heart-felt THANK YOU to those who took me up on my offer to subscribe to our blog!  I really didn’t think that many of you would take me up on it!  Thanks go out to: Aunt Jeanie, Deb, Kate, Joanne, Fred, Becky, Kevin, Jeremy, Jerry, Karla and Ray!

Also, I’ve changed the font from the tiny one it used to be to a bit larger to assist those of you who might have trouble reading it, especially given it’s a light color on a medium/dark background.

Yesterday, after working on some administrative type stuff here at home… paperwork that needed to get done, improvements to the blog (including the subscriber stuff,) laundry… I took Dad to the dentist.  When I got to his apartment, he was nearly ready to go, but he was upset.  He lost his wallet, and had been searching for it for days.  He had, he said, completely turned the place upside down to no avail.  I immediately began thinking of what would be lost… Identification card, credit card, insurance info.  Actually what bothered me most was his social security card.  I wasn’t worried so much about identity theft, though of course that concerned me, but Dad still carries the original social security card issued to him way back when!

Fortunately, a quick survey of his pants, all neatly hung in his closet unearthed the wallet, and all is good!

As we drove to Council Bluffs for the appointment with Dr. Ronk, Dad and I talked of memories.  Rather we spoke of the memories he no longer has.  It was a poignant talk for me, as I told Dad of all that he had done in life.  He’d served in the Army during WWII.  Yes, he knew that.  He didn’t know if he’d fought in 2 or 3 major campaigns.  I told him he had.  He remembered Okinawa… and that he was wounded there.  And he knew he’d been wounded on the same day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away.  We commented on the coincidence that that day, April 12, was also the day 5 years later that Bob was born.

I asked Dad “Dad, what do you think the most significant thing you’ve ever done was?”  I’m not sure what I expected the answer to be… frankly, I was thinking in terms of his service in WWII.  He said “I don’t know.  Did I do anything significant?”  Then he thought a while.

“I think the most significant thing I ever did was marry my Bonnie.”

Yup, Dad, I think you are so right.

Spending time with Dad, the hardest thing is having conversations.  Dad really can’t converse well anymore.  I’m learning the best thing I can do with Dad is tell stories.  Tales of HIS life.  All the little tales he told me growing up about what he’d done – well, he’s forgotten all that.  To him, everything since the war is just lost in a black fog somewhere.  But taking a few minutes to tell him what he did after the war… that he’d spent several months in an Army hospital on Oahu; or gone to UNO for a degree in Civil Engineering; that he worked for Northern Natural Gas back in the days before it became that evil Enron; that he attended law school, been an attorney in Omaha.  All that, and all that followed it is fodder for anyone talking to him. 

I’m learning to not wait for him to tell me what he’s been doing.  He really hasn’t a clue.  He gets up, goes to breakfast (or not), gets his medicine, cleans his room, and then it begins to trail off, ‘cause he doesn’t really KNOW what he does.  More black fog.  I don’t wait.  I rummage through the dusty attic of my mind and find a story to tell.  Don’t need to remember lots of things.  Over the course of an hour or two, I can tell him the same story 2 or 3 times.  It’s new every time.

And here I didn’t think I had anything to say today!  Good day everone!