Out of respect for my dad, I would never call him an old geezer. But I wanted to write about my latest visit with him and thought if I just titled it “a visit with my dad” there probably wouldn’t be much interest in the story. Hence the title.
Dad has always been super independent, but his years and mind have finally taken their toll. Over the past several years his dementia has slowly progressed. He finally reached a point where he could no longer be alone, so a couple of months ago my wonderful niece April (who lived next door and helped take care of him) arranged for an awesome assisted living home for him to live.
I hadn’t seen dad for a while, so I thought it would be great to visit him again and see his new home. I also wanted to visit while he could still (hopefully) remember who I was.
As I entered the home, dad was the first person I saw. He was standing at a table working on a puzzle. I walked up and stood beside him. Keep in mind I was wearing a mask, making it a little difficult for him to see my face. He looked up at me and put out his hand to shake mine. He said “Hi, what’s your name?” I said “David”. He got an intriguing look on his face, and I said “I’m your son”.
The BIG smile came! He said “Oh, I knew that name sounded familiar”. We spent the next few minutes with small talk when he asked “What are you doing here?” I said that I had come to visit him and to see his new home. It was another HAPPY moment for him.
For about the first hour he kept saying “Tell me your name again” He remembered I was his son, but he couldn’t remember my name. He eventually got it down.
He was excited to show me around his new home. It’s a beautiful place with a warm homey feel. The other residents are super nice and friendly and the staff is amazing! I was so happy he was in the perfect place. He kept mentioning how much he liked it there. It made me feel super grateful that he was happy.
Several times throughout the day (keep in mind, he was thinking he was younger) he would look at me and say “Do you realize, you look just like me?” Each time I would say “That’s a good thing”, which always brought more smiles.
We spent the day talking about things of the past that he could remember. Family, places and fun memories of the good old days. We played a fun game of bingo with the other residents. Lots of fun and laughs! He gave me several tours of the place. I didn’t mind that he kept forgetting he already gave me tours. He was so happy so show off what a great place he was living at. We worked together to finish the puzzle he had been working on. What a fun time, working on that little project together.
When it was time to go, he was a little sad to see me go, but so happy I came to visit.
All in all, it was a GRAND day!
Story by David Quinton
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