My Father

While all of this was going on, my family was getting worried about my father. For a few years he had been acting "off". We first noticed it in 2002, when he was 62. He had trouble following conversations and directions. Things got worse, and in 2005 he started having episodes where his body would freeze up and he wouldn't be able to move. My parents lived 5 minutes away so my mother would call me and I would go over and help. At this point his personality wasn't affected, and the episodes were happening about once every two weeks. At first we thought they were mini strokes, but no.  In August we all went to the beach for a week. Three times Dad fell because he lost control of his body.  One evening we were sitting on the deck and he told me how frustrating it was. His mind and his body were going. I was heart broken.

We had been back a week when he fell when no one was around. He broke two ribs and punctured his lung. He was in the hospital for five nights. While he was there, he lost completely lost touch with reality. I had this "vision" where I saw him in a wheel chair, head down, grayish skin, and very old looking. I really didn't want that to come true.

My father  and I in Mexico

He was never really the same after that. He got diagnosed with Lewy Body disease, a rare disease that is Parkinson's and really bad dementia. When we researched it it looked like patients lasted seven years.  There wasn't much information on it so seven years seemed too terrible to be believed. But since we knew it was fatal (!) Mom decided that everyone should go to Mexico for Thanksgiving, their treat. It was the right decision.