I took another week off from blogging last week against my instincts, but it felt like the thing to do. My father’s fading came to an end. He passed away just before Father’s Day. I had thought I would have one last Father’s Day with him, but that was not to be. Of course, even if he had been aware of a visit, I know that he wouldn’t have remembered it, and even if he had remembered, he wouldn’t live long enough to think back upon it fondly. Some of the joy of celebrations comes from their transience, the fact that they can’t go on forever. Ironically part of the joy of transience comes with the time to remember. My father had no memory and as it turns out, no time either. It does remind me though that part of the joy of life, our own life, and the joy we find in others’ lives, comes from the fact that we know they cannot last.
I’d like to go back to a time to a few years ago, when my father still had memories and got some happiness from telling them to me.
March 6, 2011 Taking Walks with the Census Taker and my Dad
May 30, 2011 Interview with Dad
and March of this year, when his memory was fading but still good enough to know that there were things, like tuberculosis, that he did not want to remember.
Bye Dad…