My Dad
II
I called my dad last weekend for Father’s Day.
For years he’s been caring for his partner who has a degenerative disorder. He’s been housebound, but now
she’s in care, he spends most of his time at the home she now lives in, making
a different life with her.
He’s started to move past the grief that came with
the ravage of her illness and the change to his home, and he’s finding himself.
For a man who worked long hours and spent little of
his free time with others, he’s now Mr Social Blowfly. He dresses up each day
to visit his wife and flirt with the nurses. Okay, maybe not flirt so much as
he loves the attention he gets from them when he’s dressed in his fancy attire.
For a man who’s been a bit of a loner, he’s now
engaging with residents, volunteers and staff, helping out, sharing a laugh and
building relationships.
And he’s Mr Have-A-Chat.
Gone are our five-minute telephone conversations.
Now he’s got plenty to say.
The only thing is that the conversation tends to be
one-sided.
I interrupted him at one point and said ‘Hey I just
said something! What did you think of that???’
‘Darl, I can't really hear over the telephone and I
just like using it,’ he said.
‘Anyway it doesn't work. I've got this hearing aid
and this special phone and they’re supposed to work together so I can hear
while I’m talking on the phone but I can't make it work.
So I suggested he get someone to look at it and he
fessed-up.
‘Well it's the hearing aid actually,’ he conceded,
‘I just don't like wearing it at home.’
If I have this straight, he can’t hear on the phone
because he’s not wearing his hearing aid! #FFS
Then he told me he bought a slow soup cooker the
other day. It was on sale and he was feeling pretty good that he got a bargain.
‘They're great gadgets,’ he said, ‘You just put
everything in and turn it on and come back and you’ve got soup,’ he said.
‘I love soup,’ he said.
‘So I went to make some soup. I followed the mark
on the side of the bowl for hot liquids and filled it up to the level,’ he
said.
‘That’s great dad. How did it turn out?’
‘Well I didn’t realise there was two marks on the
side of the bowl and the one for hot liquids was three centimetres lower than
the one I used. So when I came back, most of the soup had exploded over the
kitchen and what was left wasn’t cooked so I poured what I could into a
saucepan and cooked it like normal. It was delicious!’
Hmmm…
So there’s my dad. Exploring himself, going about
his life and having his adventures.
I’m glad I called him.
If you liked this post, find out more about him
here.