My father gave me something I didn't realize I had - I'm sure he had no idea that he had given me (left me) this remarkable gift either. I realized he had given me this gift while I was on the 'van ride for ice-cream' activity that we had on last Thursday, for the nursing home. As a 'resident', I chose to go on the van ride, which I've done before. However, as a 'caretaker', in the past, I never fully appreciated what this particular event meant to my dad. When I would look after my dad on some Saturdays, so my sister could take my mom shopping and give her a break, he would always (sometimes 2-3 times) have me take him on a drive in my car to the little mountain town where he grew up, about 10 minutes away from where he and my mother lived at the time, in a much larger city. This little town has about 700 people, rolling hills, farms and a reservoir, where people go fishing and boating. In my youth, our family would spend many weekend evenings here visiting my dad 's relatives. Mind you, my dad had Alzheimer's (we didn't know it at the time) but this was a place he remembered. It would be frustrating, to me, sometimes, because he would always have you drive into the town (one little two-lane road would lead you through the town, while the four-lane freeway would lead you by the outskirts of the town). Anyway, you had to drive into town at one end of the two-lane road, go through town in the same direction, by the same houses, always ending at the cemetery, where his parents and siblings were burried (along with my siblings - his children). After that you had to buy him something to drink and we could finish the ride. It must have been very comforting to him, to recognize something and the feelings of 'belonging' the sight of these places brought to him.
Well, as a 'resident' on the ride last Thursday, we drove on the freeway by the outskirts of the town, on our way to a different, much larger, city, where the ice-cream factory was. As we drove by the little town, I found myself thinking of - and looking for - all the particular places where family used to live, the little red school-house where we would have family reunions, the place where we would ice-skate as children and finally, for the cemetery where my family is burried and where one day I will be burried. It was then I realized he had given me the gift of 'APPRECIATION'! Appreciation for simpler times, simpler things, nostalgia, (call it what you will) but most importantly appreciation for my heritage - grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings. As we drove by the town, the longing in my heart was palpable to me. How grateful I was that I had ben instilled with and a recipient of such a gift!
