Huckleberries: Father’s face foreshadows long road

Columnist D.F. Oliveria is on vacation. We hear he’s communing with nature and harmonizing with his inner self somewhere around Athol. In his absence, guest Huckleberry Pickers are taking turns in the big blogger’s chair. Today’s installment comes from Coeur d’Alene City Councilman Mike Kennedy of the blog The Idaho Kennedys ( www.mikekennedy.blogspot.com).

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In a Leo Kottke song some time back he talks about looking in the mirror and seeing his father’s face. This past week I sat in a hospital in Florida with my soon-to-be-70-year-old father. He had undergone emergency quadruple bypass surgery and the doctors were concerned that he had also suffered a minor stroke at some point in the process. As he fitfully struggled to get some real sleep, I had hours to look into his face, and turn to the left into the mirror and see his face again, about 33 years earlier. It was among the scarier and more sobering experiences of my life to see my father lying there in such a state of vulnerability. Dad’s home and doing better now, but he has quite a road to go for recovery. And in looking in that mirror, I have quite a road to go myself – in more ways than one.