Worlds of Fun
This was from July 23 and I never hit publish...
The summer continues with lots of Mexican restaurant stops and Emily has been taking notes on them but not keeping up with blogging about them as much as she is eating. Today wasn’t a taco day as she and I tagged along with the boys and their friends to Worlds of Fun. The kids all have a season pass because they usually make so many group trips each summer, so it’s cheaper that way. But this summer, none of us have been here a single time yet. So when Andrew started organizing a group with Zach as the driver, I crashed their teenage party. But the great thing about my boys is they didn’t seem to care a bit. I had thought I’d keep Emily and completely separate while we were here, but that plan changed too. While they are riding Boomerang and Mamba and who knows what else, I’m waiting for a phone call from my sister-in-law for a meeting with Hospice for my dad. Meetings about Mom have been endless since January when her brain tumor was found. But Dad has struggled so much too. This summer has been bad for him. I think back to Christmastime when he was definitely the one we worried about. He’s been the one we’ve worried about since I was 8 years old. In March of 1982, he had his first two heart attacks. And nothing about his heart has been very normal since then. There have been so many times we’ve thought, how did he ever live through that? But he has.
At the end of December, he was the one that was sick. He wasn’t eating and was sick all the time. Karla and I went with him and Mom to the VA emergency room on January 1. It was freezing that day. Not just outside, but inside too. They kept him to get him fluids and sent him back home. He still wasn’t really eating for some time after that. Since he wasn’t eating much, neither was Mom. We thought at the time that Mom wasn’t eating because dad wasn’t cooking. He loved to cook and was always trying new things in the kitchen. But in retrospect, Mom probably wasn’t eating because she had brain cancer. But we didn’t figure that it for another 3 weeks or so. Dad got through his illness in January, losing some weight along the way and probably not fully getting back to normal because he’d lost a lot of weight. The next months were spent with doctor appointment after doctor appointment for both of them. Oftentimes, dad drove himself to the VA but we started going with him some too because his ability to drive and get around was definitely diminishing. In fact, during the month of February, we had more doctor appointments for myself, my parents, and my kids than there were days in the month of February. Many days had more than one appointment. It was crazy.
Now I sit in July, looking at the Mamba, listening. To the basketball 3 point challenge music and the occasional whistle of the World’s of Fun train every time it makes its way around the park. It’s hot, but I’ve got my bottle of water and some nice shade to wait. Wait for Linda to call me to hear what Hospice has to say about Dad and his future. How you handle the end of life for your parent. And the it’s the parent that has lived 35 years longer than we thought he would. But all the while, the other parent sits in a nursing home where some of the nicest people are taking care of her.
The summer continues with lots of Mexican restaurant stops and Emily has been taking notes on them but not keeping up with blogging about them as much as she is eating. Today wasn’t a taco day as she and I tagged along with the boys and their friends to Worlds of Fun. The kids all have a season pass because they usually make so many group trips each summer, so it’s cheaper that way. But this summer, none of us have been here a single time yet. So when Andrew started organizing a group with Zach as the driver, I crashed their teenage party. But the great thing about my boys is they didn’t seem to care a bit. I had thought I’d keep Emily and completely separate while we were here, but that plan changed too. While they are riding Boomerang and Mamba and who knows what else, I’m waiting for a phone call from my sister-in-law for a meeting with Hospice for my dad. Meetings about Mom have been endless since January when her brain tumor was found. But Dad has struggled so much too. This summer has been bad for him. I think back to Christmastime when he was definitely the one we worried about. He’s been the one we’ve worried about since I was 8 years old. In March of 1982, he had his first two heart attacks. And nothing about his heart has been very normal since then. There have been so many times we’ve thought, how did he ever live through that? But he has.
At the end of December, he was the one that was sick. He wasn’t eating and was sick all the time. Karla and I went with him and Mom to the VA emergency room on January 1. It was freezing that day. Not just outside, but inside too. They kept him to get him fluids and sent him back home. He still wasn’t really eating for some time after that. Since he wasn’t eating much, neither was Mom. We thought at the time that Mom wasn’t eating because dad wasn’t cooking. He loved to cook and was always trying new things in the kitchen. But in retrospect, Mom probably wasn’t eating because she had brain cancer. But we didn’t figure that it for another 3 weeks or so. Dad got through his illness in January, losing some weight along the way and probably not fully getting back to normal because he’d lost a lot of weight. The next months were spent with doctor appointment after doctor appointment for both of them. Oftentimes, dad drove himself to the VA but we started going with him some too because his ability to drive and get around was definitely diminishing. In fact, during the month of February, we had more doctor appointments for myself, my parents, and my kids than there were days in the month of February. Many days had more than one appointment. It was crazy.
Now I sit in July, looking at the Mamba, listening. To the basketball 3 point challenge music and the occasional whistle of the World’s of Fun train every time it makes its way around the park. It’s hot, but I’ve got my bottle of water and some nice shade to wait. Wait for Linda to call me to hear what Hospice has to say about Dad and his future. How you handle the end of life for your parent. And the it’s the parent that has lived 35 years longer than we thought he would. But all the while, the other parent sits in a nursing home where some of the nicest people are taking care of her.
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