Things have been such a yo-yo over the past few days. Andy's father, Reg, died last week. It was very sudden and unexpected; though he had some pretty severe limitations after the car accident last year and the subsequent complications, he was very stable from a medical point of view. His short-term memory was not very good and physically he was essentially limited to bed, though he did spend some time each day up in his chair. But his long-term memory was basically intact (he knew all of us and often talked about events prior to the accident) and he had regained quite a bit of the use of his right hand (he could feed himself and was able to use his remote control for his television).
Andy was visiting with Reg last Thursday. He had a good long visit and Reg gave Robin a raspberry as they were leaving. Nothing seemed unusual at that time. The staff served him his dinner (Andy had brought in some particular favourites), but when they returned about twenty minutes later, Reg had passed away. It's still not clear what happened; we may have some answers tomorrow.
It's been quite weird over the past few days. Sometimes we are going about the mundane things like laundry or putting gas in the car, feeling like it's a pretty ordinary day, and then bam, something happens that reminds us that things are not ordinary but rather very surreal and upside-down. It's very disorienting. Having kids around, both Lisa and Robin, has been a very normalizing force. Regardless of how odd it feels to do simple things like feeding the baby, it's got to be done. So you concentrate on that for a while and things sort of right themselves for a while.
There will be a memorial service this Wednesday at 7:00 at Thomson Funeral Chapel on Broadway. All are welcome to come.
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