My father is 97 and my mother is 83 and I am very lucky that I am able to treasure them for the last 44 years of my life.
When my mother was working, she was running around 24 hours a day delivering babies and vaccinating children in schools in a small southernmost island in Japan called Okinawa. She was one of the only female doctors in Okinawa in the early years so she delivered a lot of babies.
She loved parties also and took me around to all the fantastic dinner parties that pharmaceutical companies set up to wine and dine medical doctors in those days. Even being a medical doctor, my mother loves her whiskey and tobaccos, drinking like a fish and puffing like a chimney.
She doesn’t quit to this day because she said she got to 83 without stopping so why stop now. She’s always been and always will be a bundle of happiness and laughter.
My father used to also be active and flew around the world teaching but he was an opposite in character to my mother.
He traveled around Asia teaching at University of Maryland, lecturing around about World History and Pacific War. He practiced martial arts (Kendo) with an obsession, becoming the highest rank for a non-Japanese in history.
He only has 1 leg (the other is prosthetic) so he was in the newspapers and got awarded from the Emperor for his achievements (he brought back Kendo in Japan after it was banned by the US when Japan lost the war).
He used to have a very loud voice that could shake a classroom. He was tall and scary looking so I always wondered how his students took his classes (apparently they loved him… his students were military of course).
I was always scared of my father… but never doubted that he loved me and my brother deeply. Although he always said “I love you both very much but I love your mother the most.” We loved hearing that for some reason. Maybe it was comforting that this scary man was actually deeply in love with our bubbly mother.
Seeing my parents in the prime years deteriorating in mobility through the years is quite painful. My father especially is losing most of his senses and coordination. His mind still expects his body to move but it doesn’t. It must be really frustrating and he starts to get angry because of it. My father now needs 24 hour care.
Even though my parents are aging and no longer the charismatic two I have known them from before, they are still my heroes and I sincerely wish they live as long as they can. I love my mother and father so much.
Seeing my parents age… it makes me think even further the meaning of life. The meaning of living.
Have you thought about growing old? Did you experience anyone around you getting really old? We grow older every day so we experience it ourselves.
This thing about aging always has been a topic of mine since I was a child because my parents and I have a big age gap. But actually seeing them aging and perhaps coming to the end of their life, it is the most scary experience I am having to deal with.
My father is 97 and my mother is 83 and I am very lucky that I am able to Continue Reading »
