What next on the great adventure?
There is something sad about sitting in an airport, leaving your parents behind again, the inevitable last moment of tearful FaceTime and then the monotony of wondering the duty-free and W.H.Smith store. Wondering if you are going to cough all the way home and frustrate your neighbor. In the last couple of years I have made more trips to the U.K. than in the twenty or so before. My parents are aging as am I and it seems to be at an accelerated pace. They are also struggling with some health issues which are progressing the way they are supposed to I guess.
What used to be fun jaunts to the old country, happy meals and tearful goodbyes that you new was not forever has turned into something else. There is a real sadness and an uncertainty that this may not only be for a short time and that next time there may only be one of them. On that level you start or at least I started to realize that sickness is a truly personal experience unique to the individual, although it seems at time to have become a series of Facebook requests and fake “amens” along with the desperate beginning of most people will not post or reply to this statements.
This visit was supposed to be a joyful experience. Hanging out with the parental units and maybe meeting up with some people, virtual and real, Instead it turned into series of visits to hospitals and doctors as we tried to figure what was going on with my Mum. It turned out she was dehydrated and not eating, not a good combination for an older lady who is struggling with other health issues. Who knows why these things happen, maybe it is an evolutionary thing when you stop using resources for the tribe or maybe it is just that nothing tastes good anymore so what is the point of eating it, only she knows and she is not telling.
So with things just barely in control it’s time to leave, 10 days has flown by with appointments and crying and hugs and tears and more hugs. I’ll be back in August and hopefully things will be better because this is my youngest sons graduation gift, Cropredy, traveling and neolithic stone circles maybe or a swim in the Irish Sea.
And then there is the question of why do we go on sometimes, for our children, our parents, our jobs, our partners? Ultimately the answer to that is as personal as anything else in this world.
There is however always solace in good music.
timeweleftthisworldtoday 