Our Time In Exile

 A couple of weeks ago, Andrea and I were in a state of no small concern over the health and well being of her father.

One night, a neighbor called Andrea's brother with a disturbing report: Andrea and her brother's dad had wandered over to the neighbor's house and seemed quite disoriented.

Given he is 88 years old, all sorts of thought processes immediately gravitated to all sorts of worse case scenarios.  

So he was taken to the hospital where he spent several days of being poked, prodded, probed and perhaps some other 4th word beginning with "P".  

Yes, he had a stroke but not recently. Best estimate was that happened several months ago and he didn't know it and neither did we.

What he did have was an infection in one of his feet and it had progressed so far as to present a real possibility he might lose the foot. 

The fever from that infection was the most likely cause of his disorientation.  

But there was also the not so insiginificant consideration of his age. No matter how well one might be physically and mentally, advanced age will take it's toll.  

So the question was if the events of that night where he wandered over to his neighbor's was an aberration or a sign of things to come.

So a plan was planned: Andrea and I would move in with him for a week. 

This plan was no small amount of stress for Andrea and I. We're creatures of habit and routine and this was going to be a big disruption of all that.

And Andrea's dad is a man who has lived on his own for a long while now and has grown accustomed to having his house to himself. 

 He did express himself that he thought this was an overrreaction to one bad night.  Nonetheless, he was gracious and kind as we fussed and puttered about.

Our intent was to help as we needed to help but to also take the measure of his ability to manage himself, to remember on his own to take his medicine in the prescribed amounts and times, stuff like that.

At first, he genuinely did seem to need our help with some stuff but as the week progressed, he was back to his old self sufficient self. 

SIDE NOTE: we got a visit from Rosie the Dog at the end of the week. And she brought son Dean and friend Jan with her.  

So there was for a day 6 of us in a house that normally just had one person.  

As the week went on, the three of us fell into a new routine.  

So after a week, when Andrea and I returned to the Fortress of Ineptitude, it felt kind of weird. We had gotten accustomed to our new normal.

Now we're back to our old normal. Mostly.  It still kind of feels a bit surreal.  

Andrea's dad is doing fine but we understand that this is not sustainable forever. 

But for now, living in this moment, we are grateful for his good health and grateful for the time we had and will continue to have for some time to come. 

I like to think we did some good for this man who has been good to me since I became a part of my wife's family.