This Is Somewhat Personal But...

I have not been to close to my dad for many years and for a lot of reasons.
Today, I found out that my Dad has a severe case of Alzheimer's and his long term and short term memory are pretty much shot and his vocabulary is limited to one and two word sentences.
Because I was not involved in my Dad's life in the past several years, I just found out that his second wife, a wonderful woman to him, passed away earlier this year. This leaves my Dad living in Florida with no immediate family with him and depends on his 2nd wife's family to deal with his affairs, for which they are saints.
Even though it is too late for me to get into any meaningful relationship with him, I am going to try my best to make his last days as comfortable as possible.
When I worked in nursing homes and worked with scores of people with Alzheimer's and their families, never did I think I would have someone in my family have the disease as severe as my Dad has.
Fortunately, my Dad is at a good nursing home, which when he entered was brand new, with a caring staff. However, at this time, it is difficult to be in his life, unless he comes to live in Las Vegas, which is not known for good nursing homes.

So, to all of you who do not have a relationship with your father, please consider that this coming Sunday is Father's Day and maybe a present you can give your dad, which is far more important than a tie or a card, is to come back and be involved in your Dad's life.
Even though, my relationship with my Dad will never be the same, I hope that the readers here will never be in that boat.
And if you are a father, please do what you can to maintain a relationship with your kids. It's a two way street. I hope and pray that the relationship with my kids and myself will never stray.

So, to my Dad, I love you and to the readers of my blog, please, don't get into a position where your relationship with your dad is over, even if he is alive. You never know if that devil of a disease will hit home like it did for me.