Last night I picked up my dad and brought him home for dinner. I used to cringe every time I’d walk dad through my garage and into my house as the garage has many of the tools that used to be his. It’s pretty common for children to have enormous guilt over placing their parents in a nursing home especially when they’re still cognizant enough to know they’re loosing so much and can’t do anything to stop it. It doesn’t matter that it’s the right thing to do. It just hurts and you have to keep repeating the mantra “I love them and it’s for their own good.”

For years I had plans to interview my parents. They both had lived through so much. Born before the depression, dustbowl era and wars. They traveled the world together and experienced a very full life. I wanted to get all of their memories down on video. Their experiences, their feelings, what they learned, etc. Mom was the only one who could identify most of the people in many of the old photos I have (no one wrote who it  was on the back of them). Alas time has slipped away and mom is gone and dad is slipping away. Fortunately I do have a good memory myself (when I’m not too stressed anyway) and have access to many stories of our extended families.

Seems like it was just the other day that I found myself in my parent’s house, choked up and misty eyed as I had to clean and organize their belongings getting it ready to sell. Childhood memories & emotions came flooding back as I came across a lifetime’s collection of possessions from around the world and across the last 150 years.