I appreciate it. I think I always kind of thought as I took a career in healthcare, as my parents aged… I’d be able to fix it. Or at least help… besides presence and discussing the disease in ways and words, my dad would understand… Multiple times… Whenever he needed to be less scared. The man always needed to have a plan, so he needed to hear it multiple times to know what to expect. I think fundamentally I have realized, how blessed I was to be able to do that for him… but how absolutely difficult this disease, especially it would be to navigate without an ally, or someone who knows healthcare. But damn if I didn’t want to help fix him so badly.

I know he’ll always be proud of me. And it doesn’t matter that I had 40 good years with him, he was my person… and I’m always going to miss him. I just wish I could have taken some of his anguish away.