Remembering parent's life

[newfsmith]

I lost my Dad to Dementia, COPD and Diabetes in 2001. The last months were very hard, because it was clear that Dad no longer recognized his daughter, but disliked me because I put him in the nursing home. Dad and I had always shared one thing, we both grew up on the same farm. His father farmed with his grandfather. Great-grandpa built a new barn when Dad was 7 or 8. Dad, as boys everywhere do, thought he would carve his name into the new barn doors. Grandpa caught him half way through his surname, and gave him a licking for defacing other people's property. All the time I was growing up I walked by that reminder of my Dad's boyhood every day as I did my chores. I heard the story both from my Dad, and Grandpa. Both thought it was funny. When Dad was in the nursing home; I went to the farmer now on our old farm and bought that section of barn board, hoping that it would connect with something in Dad's memory. It was already too late for that. I brought the board home with me after Dad's funeral. It sits in our kitchen, where I can see it everyday as I go about my chores.