10/28/2024
As some of you now know, my dad had a stroke at the end of September, which immediately rendered his entire right side paralyzed and effectively took away his ability to communicate or think clearly. Since then, it has been a non-stop scramble to try to get him the best possible healthcare, while simultaneously taking over his entire life as he has no spouse and no other family living close by. Every single moment during the past month we have spent advocating, calling, researching, and sorting out countless documents, financial and health accounts, and possible ways to make his future life even remotely like it was before. In the moments we (my sister, my wife and I) weren't doing those things, you'd probably find us crying, or just simply trying to figure out what the f*ck the point of anything is. The short answer is, I have no idea, and I have no idea what the future is going to hold for my dad. He went from a full-time working, fully active participant in our lives to being potentially wheelchair bound in a nursing home the rest of his life in the blink of an eye. My wife and I have dealt with a whole bunch of hard circumstances during the past few years, but this is the first one that feels like it's broken us. Between the immense pressure of having to sort out my father's entire financial and physical future and the crushing sadness of potentially forever losing the person I knew and loved forever, I am admittedly having a hard time coping at the moment. I've already reached out to my current clients to ask for some grace with my current editing timelines (and have received nothing but incredibly kind and understanding responses ) and would just like to add the following things.
1. Hug your people a little (or a lot) extra every day.
2. Start to figure out a βWorst Case Scenarioβ plan with your spouses and/or parents for situations like this.
3. If you feel like praying for my dad, I would absolutely appreciate it as worst case scenario it floats off into space somewhere.
4. I will indeed be ok in the end of all this, I just needed to get this off my chest as it might just a take a little time before I'm able to create and share things the same way I did before.
