MikeK: My Father’s Face

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 laying 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 to myself - in more ways than one.

MikeK

DFO: This is one of the finest posts made by a blogger on the North Idaho Blogroll. Simply terrific.