I was down with my dad again from Tuesday through Thursday of this week.
I managed to get an assortment of photos, which you can find in the
gallery: http://tinyurl.com/pbraun As someone recently pointed out, as
soon as you're on my main page, pop open the sidebar and click on
"recent updates" and you can see the shiny new pix without me having to
link to all of them here.
As dad's cancer progresses, I can definitely see him getting weaker and
weaker. This week we all decided that he will move out to central
Missouri and live with my brother and his family, something that will
probably happen within the month. My wife and I simply don't have space
for him, plus my wife is completely stressed out having to take care of
her 91-year-old mother who lives up by us. We had to put her into
assisted living, and if the VA keeps jerking us around, it will deplete
every last penny we have. You'd think the widow of a WWII vet wouldn't
have to fight so hard to get the housing benefits she's entitled to, but
you'd be wrong. At least for Dad, living out with my brother, it's a
town very much like Steeleville (where I grew up), and he'll be
surrounded by the grandkids in his final days. (My wife and I never had
kids). He's lived a little more than half his life in Steeleville (we
moved from Chicago in 1972.) I was truly hoping that he'd get to live
out the rest of his days there, but life just isn't going to work out
that way.
As I drove around town, a sense of sadness set in. Partially because of
the inevitability that Dad is losing to cancer, but also because I
realized that once he moved and the house was sold, that I really
wouldn't have a reason to go back there. I really only have one friend
left back there, and now that he and his wife are both retired, they are
trying to travel a lot. Plus, Steeleville really isn't close to
anything (it's 70min away from St. Louis), and my HS reunions are always
on the 4th of July, when I can't get away.
I will probably be going back one more time, two at the most. I plan on
getting some more photos of things and places that are still left from
my childhood before I say goodbye and close the door on that part of my
life.
Wow. Did I really just dump all of that baggage on you guys? Sorry...
Enjoy the photos. C&C always encouraged.
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Paul Braun Certified Music Junkie
Valparaiso, IN
"It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins
"Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life" - Harlan Howard
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