The collapse

One day, when our middle child was in 7th grade, I was driving out of our neighborhood to pick her up after school. At a stop sign, there were 5 cars ahead of me and I could see a fire engine and people milling about. I wondered what was going on. When I got to the intersection, I saw an old man lying in the street with people standing over him. It. Was. My. Father. I instantly pulled into a driveway and jumped out. It appeared that Dad had been walking (?) and collapsed and people had called the police and stopped to help. He was on the ground and the fireman was trying to get him to answer questions. I explained who he was and who I was and I asked Dad if he knew who I was. I'm not sure if he recognized me.

They helped me put him in my car and I drove home with him. A kind neighbor recognized me and offered to get my daughter. I called Mom at work and told her about Dad and said she needed to come right away. Another kind Samaritan followed me home and helped me get him into my house. I plied him with liquid because the fireman thought he might be dehydrated. Dad told me he just wanted to come and see me. That was tough to hear. He had an old picture book with him for Conrad, as an excuse to come and see me. What we think happened was that he found the book and thought Conrad had left it, so he needed to return it to me. We lived about 3 or 4 miles away, way too far for him. Heck, walking to get the mail was too far for him. And, of course, Conrad was in third grade.

It was decided that Dad could no longer be left alone in the house while Mom worked her part time job. I agreed to stay with him one day a week. He went to adult day care the other days. I was very glad he wasn't on his own anymore. I had been scared something horrible would happen, and something did. I was just glad he would be all right.