A Life-Changing and Shocking Request from Dad
While I was in Florida, in the spring of 2023, my father shocked me by asking if I would consider relocating to help my mother take care of him. It was the first time in my whole life my father had ever asked me for anything. He had given me so much and I knew he needed me. I told him I would continue to be with him as much as I could. I could not even process how I could actually manage to help take care of him full time. Also, at that time, we were all still hopeful that he would turn a corner, start to get better and that his care would be more manageable for mom.
However, Dad took a turn for the worse in September 2023 and he just continued to get worse and worse until we lost him in February 2024. That was a terrible, heart-breaking time for my whole family.
In October 2023, Dad seriously asked me to retire from my career in New York so that I could help my mother take care of him. He had mentioned it a few times but now he was super serious. I agreed, but I said I could not just give two-weeks notice and quit. I was running the not-for-profit and I would need to go through a process to transition to a new team. I said I would start the process soon and that I should be available sometime in the spring of 2024. Meantime, I said I would continue to spend as much time with him as I could.
One of my biggest regrets will always be that we lost my father before I had the chance to spend the special time with him that I had planned. I knew a lot of the time we would spend would be going to doctors’ appointments but I wanted to build in fun time together too doing puzzles, playing games, short outings on days he felt better, etc. I put together a whole list, that I cannot even bear to look at it, of activities for us to do together in what I was determined to make a special time for both of us. I still find it hard to believe that we lost him before I could make all of that happen. I felt robbed of something I wanted very much but then God intervened and showed me another path forward. I turned the hurt into hope with the grace of God.
