WORKING WITH DAD

Mentally, Dad was vanishing fast. Incipient Alzheimer's. Sandy and I were there on a visit. I think he still knew us, but you couldn't be sure. After breakfast, he wanted to cut back some tree branches from the eaves. He showed me where the long-handled pruner was. At the side of the house, I did the cutting and he did the directing.

Working from the ground, trimming the branches back was hard and uncomfortable. I knew I could do it better from the roof. So I got the ladder and climbed up. From there, I made rapid progress. "You should come down," he said. "Why?" I asked. "Because it's dangerous."

Back on the ground, I helped him to cut the branches into small pieces, filling a 32-gallon trash can. As we neared the end of the job, I remarked that it was almost done. "All good things come to an end," he said.

21 December 2016