He also said, anytime I didn’t know what to do (next), give him a call. He called me to say that I was not alone. The only person older than me was my Grandfather. At 19 years of age, I would begin my family with a wife of two years, a 15-year-old brother, and a 13-year-old sister. ![]() My parents died at age 42 and 44 respectively. Thanks, Dad.Īdmiration, that’s how it began for me. Develop the habit of always moving forward, no matter what. So, the take-away is that even when your memory is going, your muscle memory is still in tack. His muscle memory was still intact up to and until four days before he passed. Before he passed, he and my wife still communicated every day. The great man that gave me the hand of his only daughter, had taught me principles and values and was the father I never had as an adult, was gone. By the time he was ninety, he only recognized my wife, his only child. If I was there, great, if not, he’d start without me. He stayed in his wheelchair, looked backward, and began “walking.” I said, “Wow Dad, that’s great.” He was still in his wheelchair with his feet on the floor.ĭad “walked” every day. I can make sure you don’t lose your balance and fall.” Then I said, let me see you walk. He said, “Hell yes, I walk at least a couple of miles every day.” I said, “Really?” “Yes, he said.” I said, “Great, I’ll come by every day and “walk” with you. I walk a couple of miles every day.” Dad had been using a wheelchair to get around since he was placed in the memory care facility. One day we were talking about exercise and he said, “You have to keep moving forward. When he was eighty-eight, he still knew who I was but it was necessary (for his safety and ours) that we place him in a memory care facility just down the street from where we lived. Occasionally, we had to remind him which way was forward but he kept moving. ![]() It was at that same time we also noticed that he was still moving forward. I asked him, “Doesn’t that hurt your hands?” He said, “Hell yes it hurts.” Then he said, “You have to push past it and keep moving forward.” It was about twelve years later when we noticed that dementia was settling in. It took him two weeks to cut it down but he kept moving. He felt that eight-foot was more than enough to shield our backyard. One day he just decided we didn’t need it that high. So, his big idea was to come over to our home and trim our twelve-foot-high privacy wall that was ivy-covered. Dad had severe arthritis in both his hands and feet. I’m so grateful and blessed.Įvery day has its own set of challenges. Dad was exactly the age I am now when I asked the question: “What’s the secret to living a long life?” Dad didn’t hesitate, he said, “Always move forward, never back. One day when my Father-in-law, Dad (to me) was in my office talking about life, it caught me off guard because I was supposed to die when I was forty-two.
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