It has been a few weeks since the death of my father and
like many others who have traveled this path; you walk slowly down a road that
says for you this person has reached an end. It is an end, at least in a
physical sense, that cannot be altered no matter how we attempt to shift our
focus.
The other day I was helping my sister pack up things of Daddy’s
that she wanted to keep, and the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” came to mind.
There are a number of things to like about that movie but the phrase that came to
me was “It is possible for a heart to be broken, and keep right on beating.” This
fits my sister at this point. She was the one who provided most of the care for
Daddy and to a degree in all our minds catered to his wishes. I stand there watching her lovingly decide and
have to ask myself: “How does life go on when doctor visits, time to take
pills, special arrangements for bathing and all the adjustments that went on
for years, suddenly come to an end? Yes,
the heart is broken but truly does keep right on beating.
Major questions that now present themselves are: What to do
with all those hours given over to checking on him? How is life now to be
ordered once the light we all seemed to revolve around has gone out? Who would we
share rounds of laughter with as we made fun of navigating life?
Despite the fact I focused on my sister, I realize now that all
of us have had our hearts broken in different ways, but just as the narrator of
the movie says “It just keeps right on beating.”
