"Chocolate Ice Cream Cone" is one of the earliest songs I remember my dad singing. Kenny Roberts was on a local television show when I was very little, but my dad sang this song a lot.
Dad wasn't good a yodeling, but he made up for it with love.
He sang a lot of songs that I remember...and will remember
My Dad, Thomas David Brown, died last Monday, January 2, 2017. He was born on January 25, 1935 and in February, my mom and dad would have been married for 58 years.
There's still a lot of processing going on. Memories shared.
A lot of back story - last August my mom fell and broke her leg very badly. She's had several surgeries, and has been in several hospitals - she was in "Hills and Dales" in Cass City, MI. (I mention their name because the nurses are very wonderful!)
Dad took a really bad turn for the worst with his heart and lung conditions, and we spend Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital with Mom. So Phil and I, and my kids, were able to spend Thanksgiving dinner with both of my parents for my Dad's last Thanksgiving dinner in this life.
I spent some good quality time with Dad before the rest of my family got to Sandusky, Michigan. And I knew that he was ready to go see Jesus. He made no secret that he didn't want to live like that.
After Christmas, my mom was released to an assisted living home (on Thursday.) My dad was released from a different hospital to the same home, in the same apartment with Mom on Saturday. They were able to spend Saturday, Sunday and on Monday morning he was gone.
He wanted to be with my mom.
I was going to commit to blogging from the very first of the year, but missed the whole first week because I was with my family saying "bye and I love you" to my Dad.
And still longing to hear him say, just one more time, "Love you back."
I intend to blog more this year. Even now, I just feel a little more put together; my head, heart and spirit a bit more straight. I have a few interesting projects in mind, including for my head, my heart and my spirit.
Earlier this week my mom dislocated her artificial hip (again). This time they did surgery (her second major surgery in 6 months) and they ended up not having to replace the whole joint, just the socket.
~~~
I just got a call from Dad - they're giving Mom 2 units of blood (I'm not sure what the numbers mean, he said it should be 12 and it's 7).
Her good leg is now her bad leg. So she can't put more than 20 pounds on her bad leg and her good leg can't support her at all.
The good news is that she's consented to be transfered to a rehab center close to their home, rather than insisting on going to a home when she's released. The social worker said that the rehab center will be able to keep her there until she can walk with a walker (which means that they'll be working on the "bad" leg [now her good leg] which hasn't been worked on because she was using her good leg [now her bad leg] and the walker.
So, in the long run, this could get her walking with a cane *sooner* than she might have been otherwise!
I left my mountain bike with my dad (along with Tom's bike helmet) - and the stipulation that he doesn't ride without the helmet.
the last time he rode a bike, this happened:
Admittedly...the problem was Dad doing something that shouldn't be done on a bike (the seat was too hard so he put a pillow on it...when the pillow slipped, so did he).
the bike I left has really fat stable tires, is an adult bike (unlike the one he fell off) and has a padded seat.
or not...
I acquired this spinning wheel from a co-worker (out of her barn), in an unworking state. There were a few minor things wrong with it and a couple of parts missing.
I thought of my dad and I wanted to work on this with him. We took a little time this weekend (less than I thought it would take) and...
WE HAVE STRING!
Not very pretty, not very even...but the wheel is (sort of) in working order. You can see the slot where a piece is holds the spindle in place and there is a nut missing that will hold the holder in place. Without that nut, the holder slides away from the whorl (where the outside piece of string is) and the string comes off of the big wheel, so the drive "string" comes off, which brings a halt to the spinning.
Here's the catch. There are only 4 pieces of metal on this thing - it is put together with wood pegs and all of the nuts and screws are made of wood. So the threads are carved. What we need to do is find a slightly larger metal nut than we need and wrap the peg in some sort of fabric to protect the wood threads and use the metal (until if/when we can find somebody to carve a new wooden one).
I also need to find somebody with a lathe who can make a couple of new whorls and about 4 spindles.
I spent a while with my parents this weekend and my dad talked a lot about history. Times have changed and we forget how fortunate we are to live in a part of the world where life is taken for granted.
These are the graves of four of my aunts and uncles that died as babies (or young children). The first born died in 1921....(maybe). My grandmother and grandfather lost their first four (maybe five) babies. My dad told me yesterday that somebody in the family has my grandpa's Bible. The page where they recorded deaths is there, but the birth page is torn out. Just gone.
We had some very nice talks...about the past, relatives, time.
