THE CYCLE OF LIFE

The phone rings in my office on a cold afternoon in early January about twelve years ago. The call is from the assisted living home we had moved my father into two months earlier. He had been living in the same apartment he had lived in with my mother until her death thirteen years earlier. He had a companion for a number of years but remained in the same apartment he had been living in with my mother for many years.

He had called me one evening about three months earlier and described some health issues he was having that day. My wife and I went to his apartment and took him to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. He was admitted for tests. His problem was diagnosed. A couple of days later he was released to a rehabilitation facility. We consulted the doctors and were told it would be best if he no longer lived alone. Decisions had to be made.

My wife and I had to make the decisions. We did research and made calls. We took time off of work to visit potential places for him to live. These were difficult decisions to make but we made them.

We decided he would move into a nice, assisted living apartment. My sister who lives in another state flew in for a weekend. The three of us cleaned out his apartment. We hired movers. Set up the new apartment and made it look very similar to the place where he had lived for many years. We took him directly from the rehab facility to the new assisted living apartment. He would never go back to the place he had called home for forty years.

He was pleased with the new arrangement, but his health was rapidly declining. I was advised by his doctors that this would happen. There would be another hospital visit.

Calls to me in the middle of the night from the assisted living facility to make me aware of events that had taken place.

The person calling me on this gray winter afternoon told me he was having a bad day. She had called his doctor. The doctor wanted to see him. I left work and took him to see his doctor. He was examined and some of his medicines were adjusted.

The doctor called me into his private office. He said to me I think you understand the situation. Your father is almost ninety. We are doing everything we can. He will begin having more bad days than good. The doctor than said words that are etched in my mind forever. " Your father is completing the cycle of life."

I took him back to the assisted living home. The people who worked there were very nice and helpful. I visited most days. His funeral was three weeks later on another cold and snowy Thursday afternoon in January.

My father had completed the cycle of life.

WRITTEN BY

RON TURETT