I went to visit my parents yesterday morning. My dad’s last appointment with his eye doc last week did not go well at all. He’s lost even more of his vision and the surgery couldn’t correct it. There doesn’t seem to be anything left for them to do except to try to save the 35% peripheral he has in his left eye… And thus, with a detached cornea in his right eye, they are now grounded. My dad can no longer drive which means that the “freedom” he and my mother had in that regards is now over.
Needless to say, they were both extremely devastated.
It’s quite sad and at time heart-wrenching to think of all the work and effort one puts in to carving a life for yourself, keeping a roof over your head, raising a family… only to end up like this. It may need to be time to finally have them sell their house and move into a home… but the thought of being “stuck” in a small room without being able to even go out into their own yard is terrifying for them…
They’re not completely helpless and there are services they can call on, but with the news still so fresh it’s going to take some time to accept the reality of ‘now’ and move forward.
It’s such a harsh reality. You know that the “curse” of old age is going to come for you… but until it really does, you just can’t imagine what it means. I, for one, never thought I would ever see the day that my big, tough, bad-ass father would be broken by life to the point that I would have to be the one to console and counsel him…