Five years ago today my father died. It was sudden to say the least. He had been in the hospital to have surgery for prostate cancer. It went fine. He came home and started experiencing swelling in his right leg. He went back to the hospital. They said they thought he would be fine.
On the evening of July 8, 2006 Mrs. P90 and I were heading off to see Broken Social Scene and Belle & Sebastian at Merriweather. I spoke to my father on the way to the show. He was feeling fine. My wife was pregnant at the time, and my father was highly amused by the food comparisons Babycenter.com used to explain the size of the developing embryo. I ended the call with my father and he said "Tell the raspberry that grandpa is thinking about her."
We went to the show. Broken Social Scene was a little boring, but they ended with Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl (see below) and it was great. We walked towards the bathrooms and I saw that I had three voice mails and numerous missed calls from my mother, brother, and sister. "This can't be good," I thought to myself. As I was listening to a voice mail from my mother asking me to call her, my brother called and delivered the news. I couldn't really process what he was saying.
With nothing I could do, and being 600+ miles away, I went back to my seat and watched the Belle & Sebastian show. I tried to keep my mind in a positive place knowing the next few days, weeks, months would be rough.
The show was good. I remember they played Dirty Dream #2 and it was awesome.
I don't think it fully hit me until a few months later when my daughter was born. It was so strange to not be able to share it with my father. Losing a parent is such a weird thing. I don't know if you ever fully process it. I know I haven't yet. At least I was an adult. My dad was only 60, but he wasn't the picture of health. He was overweight and smoked like a chimney. If there is a moral to this story it's that I need to take better care of myself so that I will be around to meet my grand kids someday.
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