My Father's Burden.
The past seven days have been unfair to my father. This past week has asked a lot for one guy to digest, and it breaks my heart.
Last Tuesday his fiancé went code blue at the hospital for respiratory failure, and she almost died. She had the flu and he took her to the hospital to get her checked out. That's when it happened.
To add insult to injury, he ended up contracting the flu from her himself, so he can barely take care of her - she being a woman that needs a bit of special care when she's under the weather I think.
Meanwhile he still has his job as the vice president of the credit union in town. The credit union's largest client is Good Year Tires, and that plant just went on strike, so work has been hell.
Just as Dad was starting to feel better, he got a call that his mother - my grandmother - died of liver and kidney failure.
My grandfather had two strokes over the last year and is basically alive because Grandma could take care of him. Now that she's gone, he'll likely be too. Not that he would even want to live without her...
I've heard my father cry maybe...4 times in my near 23 years of being alive. It is so hard to see or hear him crying, to see that his defenses are gone and that he is broken. But he is broken. And he is crying.
I can't help him. None of his problems have any solutions that I can help him. I don't know what to do. It just breaks my heart.
P.S. I just found my fortune cookie from last night and opened it. It says "There are good times ahead of you." Somehow, I just needed to document this fact.
Last Tuesday his fiancé went code blue at the hospital for respiratory failure, and she almost died. She had the flu and he took her to the hospital to get her checked out. That's when it happened.
To add insult to injury, he ended up contracting the flu from her himself, so he can barely take care of her - she being a woman that needs a bit of special care when she's under the weather I think.
Meanwhile he still has his job as the vice president of the credit union in town. The credit union's largest client is Good Year Tires, and that plant just went on strike, so work has been hell.
Just as Dad was starting to feel better, he got a call that his mother - my grandmother - died of liver and kidney failure.
My grandfather had two strokes over the last year and is basically alive because Grandma could take care of him. Now that she's gone, he'll likely be too. Not that he would even want to live without her...
I've heard my father cry maybe...4 times in my near 23 years of being alive. It is so hard to see or hear him crying, to see that his defenses are gone and that he is broken. But he is broken. And he is crying.
I can't help him. None of his problems have any solutions that I can help him. I don't know what to do. It just breaks my heart.
P.S. I just found my fortune cookie from last night and opened it. It says "There are good times ahead of you." Somehow, I just needed to document this fact.