treasure your parents

[k.stroud]

I don't know if this is the correct place for this but, please treasure your parents as you do not know when you are going to lose them, as I have just lost my mom yesterday morning due to heart failure caused by cancer.

[Andrew]

As one of the Ten Commandments states "honor your mother and your father so that you all can live long in the land your god gave you"

 

my my parents died ten years ago and I still miss them both terribly 

Andrew

[Pete Lewis]

Sad days   you can keep the memories of better times  and revist those as often as you wish.

Many of us have lost parents and close friends , if I watch our old film of guests at our wedding its a bit frightening 50 yrs on  theres few left

But  lots of memories to treasure

Pete

 

[dougbgt6]

My dad died 7 years ago, we still reminisce about him. Mum is 95 and not well, made worse by my younger brother having a heart attack last Tuesday. He has a double bypass booked on Monday, looks like his Spitfire's not going finished anytime soon.

Doug

[Adrian Cooper]

 

2 days after my father died I was back at the school where I work and I was invigilating an English exam. One of the set poems was this one by Tony Harrison. Fortunately the pupils were all too intent on their writing to notice the tears rolling down my face.

Adrian

Long Distance II

Tony Harrison, 1937

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn’t just drop in.  You had to phone.
He’d put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he’d hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she’d just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven’t both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there’s your name
and the disconnected number I still call.

[JohnD]

I'm sorry for, and sympathise with your loss, K.Stroud, but there worse ways to go.

My father died, after three years of increasing dementia, my mother after more years of missing him, losing her sight and breaking her hip, although she kept her wits until the end.   A short illness has - not advantages - but the distress is not so prolonged.      

You are distressed now and will grieve, but will come to look back on your parent's lives with pride and contentment.

John

[k.stroud]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts, Doug I hope your brother gets better soon and Adrian that poem each time I read it, it brings tears to my eyes.

Karl.

[Adrian]

I lost my Dad in February to exactly the same thing. They live on in all of us, the days will get easier and the loss will subside, hopefully to happy memories.

Adrian

[k.stroud]

The next couple of days are going to be very hard as the funeral is on Friday, but I hope that after this is all over, my Dad, Sister and I will be able to move forward whilst looking back at fond memory's of my mom.

Karl.