My Dad

My dad is 95 1/2 and declining.  I just got home from seeing him tonight and I don't know how much longer he can hang on.  He is forgetting how to use his electric razor, and was using it as an electric toothbrush.  When I went over earlier, about 5, mom had dragged him out for a walk, with his walker, but he forgot that she told him to wait, and proceeded to try to get himself and his walker down the curb.  I am afraid my mother is going to kill him but not being observant and being too stubborn.

What do you say about a man that has been your dad.  Dad is not my biological dad.  He and mom married in 1989.  From day 1, I knew he would be DAD.  He was never Daddy George to me, maybe to my siblings.  He loves us dearly.  He loves mom like no one has ever loved.  They met after his wife passed and mom's divorce has been final for years.  It was a a ballroom dancing class that he first laid eyes on mom.

What makes him a great dad is is utter devotion to mom.  It didn't matter that she had four kids and that mom's parents didn't like Japanese.  He is 12 years older than mom, and with his body failing, mom is really lost.  Mom is legally blind and still living independently with dad nearby.  There is so much that I want to say about dad, it is hard to know where to start.

I think I should write an obit now, because it would be too hard to write once he passes.  Why is he the world's greatest dad?  He did not win any medals in World War 2, he did not get any commendations from the city of his birth, Los Angeles.  What he did, he did well.  He worked all his life, and after he retired, he and mom traveled the world.  When I had kids, he and mom would drive down and baby sit the kids so I can work.  He treated us like his own blood and mom as his queen.

He is old now, and is so forgetful, and often cannot remember his name.  But tonight I sang a Japanese song to him and he remembered and started humming along.  I will look up more Japanese songs so I can sing him a lullaby when he falls asleep.