January 6, 2016

Today, my dad died. He had Parkinson's disease. He didn't die from the Parkinson's though. They believe he had a sudden and massive heart attack out of the blue. He had never had heart problems. He was in a good mood this morning. Yesterday wasn't such a good day for him. Parkinson's is like that, some days are good and others aren't. He wasn't moving well yesterday and a bit cranky. This morning he was upbeat, did his exercises (as far as he can in a wheelchair) and his mind was clear. I went out for the day with my friend. She works midnights so Wednesday is the only day she's got free to go out. We were sitting down to a late lunch when my mom called and told me she thought dad was dying and had called the ambulance. We were about an hour and a half away. We had been checking out flood damage along the Mississippi river. We headed back immediately. Dad was apparently gone by the time they got him to the hospital. My dad was the smartest man I have ever known. When I was a small child he introduced me to art, history, chemistry, archaeology and hundreds of other things that have marked me for life. I sat with mom all evening. We both had phone calls and some of her friends came by. I'm very thankful for that. I stayed and watched tv with her until she went to bed. I'm downstairs now trying to convince myself that it's ok to sleep. I'm exhausted but for some reason I don't want to sleep. I hope whomever reads this had a better day.