Hearts at Home

No matter how far away I am, a good part of my heart is at home with my parents. Some days I reminisce and remember those days of childhood and teenage hood (and all the angst that went with that era!). And then the struggle of becoming a young adult -- all the foibles and successes, strong emotions, wondering how in the world I'll ever make it to adulthood in tact. And the string of commonality woven throughout these stages of life was my family. My parents and my six siblings. Yes, we grew up in a family that prayed and stayed and played and worked together.  And no, we were not The Waltons, that wonderful, close, perfect-in-so-many-ways family. Nope, not us, but looking back, I have to say, my parents did a lot of things right :) I am so thankful for parents who loved us the best they knew how and they dedicated their lives to that.

I never remember a time when my dad wasn't working hard. He did whatever he had to do to provide for his family and that meant a lot of different jobs in his younger years, until he settled into the love of his career life - mushroom farming. He was a hands-in-the-dirt farmer at heart. He loved to get things just right so that we would have a bountiful crop of mushrooms to sell. Yes, my first  job was mushroom picking - at age 13 - at the farm my dad was running.  And when my dad bought his own small farm when I turned 15, I continued almost every day after school and weekends. Mushrooms don't wait, so we older siblings worked hard and sometimes long into the night. Back then I wasn't too impressed with having to work so much.  But looking back, those were some of the best family memories ever.

My dad is tired now. He's 83, and has been fighting prostate cancer for 4 years. The prognosis was 3-5 good years. Besides the cancer, my dad is in amazing shape. He looks much younger than his years (he was always a handsome  man!) and he has kept up his daily brisk walks. But things aren't looking too good right now. He's in more pain and walking is becoming more difficult. He's pale and he's tired. Very tired.

It's that time of life, when things can change pretty quickly.

In late August my daughter and I decided to take a quick road trip to visit my parents and other family. I'm glad we made that decision. It was the right one. And it was so worth it. We made sure we joined Mom and Dad/ Opa and Oma for their daily McDonald's 'coffee and a muffin in the morning' routine. And we had some good laughs, which we always do when we visit with them. They are hilarious sometimes (even  especially when they don't mean to be!).

3 Generations

Dad is heading to the cancer clinic next week to get the low down on his MRI and doctors' recommendations. More chemo possibly or simply pain management.

 My parents will be married 60 years next August. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could get together and celebrate that?!