Two days ago, I spoke with my older brother, T. We started with our normal conversation of life, he wants to move to Arizona, my nieces etc. Then he threw a curve ball at me, "Do you think we did the right thing with Dad?"
What? Why are you asking me this now, 5 years after he passed? Of course we did. He was on life support-something he specifically told us for years he never wanted to be on. All the doctors said was he would never fully recover, physically or more importantly mentally. He was half way gone already, you could see it in his eyes, he just wanted us to let him go.
Today, our dad would have been 75 years old. Five years ago, he was struggling to walk on his own, and eventually became dependent on a wheel chair. He could not shower on his own, or even clean himself after using the bathroom. He was miserable, and told all five of us that he was just waiting for the end. He had good days, where he was optimistic about life, however it was all sadly a dream in his head. He knew there was no real hope of a normal life again, he was in assisted living (another thing he hated) and was slowly loosing his mind.
I answered T, "You know we did the right thing. He would have killed us if he could because we let him stay on life support for a week."
"I know, I just miss him"
"I miss him too."
Silence. Quiet.
Happy Birthday Dad. We love you and miss you.
