Sunday's with Daddy

I think I've mentioned it a few times here, but my Dad is pretty sick.  We've had many close calls over the years, but like a cat with nine lives, he keeps cheating death.  At some point you begin to wonder how many lives he has used up.  A couple of months ago, we thought he was at the end of his ninth life....

I love my Dad and we have always gotten along well, but he's not what you would call communicative.  If you call him on the phone, you better have a list of topics to discuss or he'll be hanging up the phone or passing it to someone else pretty quick.  Of course you can get him pretty worked up if you bring up a topic that he is passionate about, and 20 years in the Navy means there's a sailor's mouth to go with it!  So conversations with Dad are kind of a balancing act.  I'll admit that I have brought up a contentious topic a time or two, just to get him to talk to me. 

I didn't worry about Dad much before.  He keeps himself busy. I know he loves me.  He knows I love him.  He doesn't expect me to call or visit all the time. After all, the phone works both ways.  It's not like he's calling me!

Well he has been so sick, that he has been pretty much bed ridden.  My step-mom handles so much and calls and visits ARE important to her, so I decided I need to make an effort to try and visit every Sunday.  At first there were a lot of things to discuss.  Fun topics like what kind of funeral he wants to have and the importance of following the "rules!"  He's now being fed via IV and you can tell his brain is getting food.  He is more coherent and he will actually carry on a conversation if you can come up with a topic.  I noticed that he started to get the little sparkle in his eye when I would show up to visit and he would ask about my trips and my son.  Could it be that my dad was talking to me?

One day I had a brainstorm.  I had been seeing many blog posts and pinterest posts about people participating in "list a day" challenges.  What if I give my Dad homework each week?  I could assign him a list or two to work on and then we could talk about them on Sundays.

Little did I know how amazing that brainstorm was! A couple of days after I emailed the first lists my step-mom wrote back to say how much fun he was having.  

I think we are all having fun!  And because he has shared so many interesting stories, I thought it would be fun to start a new series called Sunday's with Daddy.  Each week I'll share part of what he has shared with me or one of the pages in the scrapbook I've created about our visits.

So be sure to come back on Sunday for the first installment of  "Sunday's with Daddy"

I haven't taken any photos lately - but here's one from December so you can see how tiny and frail he was.  My step-sister (Catherine) and I brought a little Christmas cheer...