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mozartman
·I am very sorry about the news of your Dad, for you and your entire family. I can only reiterate what many here have said, i.e., to take advantage of every opportunity to spend as much time with him as possible, whether you can do that road trip or not.
I received an e-mail from my mother one night seven years ago informing me that my father had suffered a stroke while my parents were vacationing in Europe. He never regaining consciousness and died a couple of days later, as I learned from a phone call from the hospital. So obviously, no chance to "say goodbye" or do anything else. But I am comforted by my memories of his final weeks, leading up to that European vacation. I tried to dissuade him from going, as he had suffered a smaller stroke a year earlier, but he wouldn't hear of it. In retrospect, I see he spent that final year, and especially the last couple of months, almost frantically trying to get to one bucket list item after another, well aware that the over activity would likely shorten his remaining life even more. (He obviously had information about his medical condition he wasn't fully sharing, even with my mother.) But that was his choice. What comforts me is that he chose to spend some of that precious final year with me, and I never turned down a chance to do so. So, that's my advice: Take every possible opportunity to be with your father.
I received an e-mail from my mother one night seven years ago informing me that my father had suffered a stroke while my parents were vacationing in Europe. He never regaining consciousness and died a couple of days later, as I learned from a phone call from the hospital. So obviously, no chance to "say goodbye" or do anything else. But I am comforted by my memories of his final weeks, leading up to that European vacation. I tried to dissuade him from going, as he had suffered a smaller stroke a year earlier, but he wouldn't hear of it. In retrospect, I see he spent that final year, and especially the last couple of months, almost frantically trying to get to one bucket list item after another, well aware that the over activity would likely shorten his remaining life even more. (He obviously had information about his medical condition he wasn't fully sharing, even with my mother.) But that was his choice. What comforts me is that he chose to spend some of that precious final year with me, and I never turned down a chance to do so. So, that's my advice: Take every possible opportunity to be with your father.
