hey guys
thought i'd give a little update. my dad is still doing well - which is awesome. Matthew had him laughing pretty good yesterday, so that's always fun to see! my folks continue to get ready for after he's gone. from what i understand his funeral is pretty much planned (they have another meeting at the funeral home this morning to go over things). i've also started to bring to my place some of the stuff he wants me to have (not gonna lie - that's pretty tough). it's also hard when my dad asks me what i want of his - my first thought is always, 'nothing dad - this is YOUR stuff!' it's not that i don't want it, it's just that it's not mine.
they've had a couple meetings with palliative care people (who have been awesome) so that's been good.
as much of the 'easy stuff' as possible has already been transferred to my mom's name. some things are just a whole lot easier to do once a death certificate has been issued.
i'm still working on getting him to pick some jewelry for my mom. the last few visits my mom has always been around, so hopefully we can get some alone time. even if we can look online at a local store and i'll go get it. i think it would mean so much to my mom.
i mentioned above that i was planning a hawaiian party this past weekend.... it was AWESOME!!!!
when we got to my folks on sunday my mom pulled me aside really quick to say that my dad was pretty low. it had been a long day and he hadn’t really rested and they had been going thru things that mom will have to take care of once he’s gone… just a down kinda day
Jordan and Matthew lightened to tone immediately (go figure) and were a great distraction while I got everything set up (the entire back of my truck was full of stuff!!). it didn’t take long and my dad was in great spirits!
we got the truck unloaded and the crock pots plugged in then I went to work dressing up the living room. my dad kept asking ‘where did you get that?’ some of it was borrowed and some my wife found a new ‘party store’ in west kelowna and bought a TON of stuff… some we didn’t use and will return.
we invited some very dear friends of my parents over for the festivities and we all had a blast! my dad really wanted to rock his hawaiian shorts & shirt, but he's always cold now (which to me is soooo weird as he's wired like me and was always warm) - so he threw on a hawaiian apron to get in the mood and then was posing for pics...
we also went and bought special glassware for a special treat…. I made fruit smoothies that were soooooo good… tropical fruit on the bottom layer, berry fruit on top!!
dinner was sooo good – i made Hawaiian meatballs on spaetzle. when my mom would make this dish it was always over rice, but dad didn’t want rice – no problem. we’ll go with a classic Mennonite dish of spaetzle!
the friends we invited brought a banana cream pie for dessert and we also brought a fruit platter
my dad was blown away that we went to that much effort – I’m soooo happy he loved the evening. my dad is a lot like me when it comes to keeping his emotions in check (hmmmm… I wonder where I get that from??), but you could sure tell it got him in the feels – so awesome. he’s just lucky I wasn’t a lot younger and without kids….. I would have transformed his living room into a beach… sand and all (seriously… one time for halloween a buddy and I left school early and put an actual dirt grave mound in my sister’s bedroom… including a headstone!! ha!)… but those were the good old days when I actually had spare time! ha!
chris