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| Rubia wanted to be a lap cat |
My coach asked me to come work out early today, as he needed to head up to his old hometown. Turns out his father passed away yesterday. He (the dad) was 88 years old. The trainer spent some of our time together sharing the story of the phone call from his sister. Their dad had called her several times during the day, from the assisted living facility where he resided... asking for her help in gassing up the truck (which he no longer has), because he needed to "go home".
Late in the day, he requested a snack... and the worker went to get it. When the worker returned, he had passed. Peacefully, quietly, just let go, and "went home". Not a bad way to go, in my book. Still, one is never quite ready for a parent to go. Says the trainer, his mom and dad's Anniversary is only a couple of weeks away... perhaps Dad is going to celebrate with Mom in heaven, as Mom passed several years ago.
Due to the request to come in early, I got up early, too. I wanted to do so, anyway, because the Gold Medal match of mixed doubles curling was to start this morning at six. I had been following the Italian team in particular, because they were just that good. I had seen them in one of the round robin matches, listening to the language, and re-living my few weeks spent working in Italy, back in the mid 1980's.
Curling is one of those quirky sports that I watch during the Winter Olympics. Stones are "thrown" (slid) down lanes of ice, toward a target area. While baseball is divided into innings, curling is divided into "ends". I started watching this during a Winter Olympics maybe 50 years ago, and got hooked. The announcers are as quiet as golf announcers, which I appreciate. Like baseball, it's a thinking game, lots of strategy, combined with the ability and skill to execute said strategy. In fact, another little bit of trivia I learned this time around (if I knew it before, I had forgotten)... the time on their clocks, which operate like chess clocks, ticking down while it is your team's turn, is called "thinking time". Fascinating.
The other quirky sport I look for at the Winter Olympics is biathlon, the combination of cross county ski racing and target shooting. Noisier: people cheer with cow bells. It combines athletic prowess in terms of ski racing, and the control needed to slow the heart and the breathing to hit those targets with a rifle.
I find these things fascinating even though I lack the skills required to execute either of them! Anybody have sports that they thrill to watch or follow, that you have no particular desire to participate in?
Anyway, that's about it from me this mid-week! Hope my fellow Spark refugees are doing our best to take care of those amazing bodies we've been given... only one per person, no trading it in, so treat it as well as you'd like it to treat YOU!
Life is good. Spark on!
{asking for her help in gassing up the truck (which he no longer has), because he needed to "go home"}
ReplyDeleteThis caused me to sob. What a poignant story. A loss for your trainer, but his dad was ready to make that last trip home.
Yep, that gets us... I think the dying process is quite a natural one, and I subscribe to Julie the Hospice Nurse on TikTok... she has hundreds of such stories, and they can make your arm hairs stand to attention. This happens often, that those who are about to pass see beyond what we have in front of us, physically.
DeleteAww, I'm sorry about your trainer's dad, but such a familiar story. Like my dad asking us to remove the painting on the wall because he couldn't see the children playing! There were none and no window. I often wonder who the children were.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could try curling.
I think curling could be a lot of fun. I don't know if I'm bend-y enough for their launching lunge, though!
DeleteAnd yes, after listening to so many tiktoks by Julie the Hospice nurse, the end of life stories are pretty familiar. I think back to my uncle, dying of cancer, talking with his mom and his wife's mom, both of whom had passed over before him. This nurse describes herself as "a hospice nurse who does not fear death" and then gives the reasons why, in anonymous patient stories (with patient family permission, of course).
Dad's 95-year-old cousin passed in Dec 2021, mentally sharp until a Sepsis infection set in her last week following a wicked UTI. At breakfast a few days before Sepsis set in, she calmly told her daughter she was going to spend the upcoming Christmas in heaven getting to know her mother that died young. Her stepmother was the mother she knew. Her daughter had recently retired as a registered nurse working with geriatric patients and a registered counselor for the same and took this in stride as part of nature's course, telling her mother that would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI think people know. I even ponder over whether my brother sort of knew, given his final blog "Listen to your body... what is it saying?" written nine days before his unexpected passing.
DeleteI try to see death as a normal part of life but every time somebody close to me passes, especially a young person, I get a bit in shock. Makes me wonder too much.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the winter Olympics!
It is hard to see a younger person pass, for sure. I know we all have to go eventually, and the older I get the more I contemplate how I would prefer my final years to be... i.e. healthy, or as healthy as I can make them. It's not about quantity, but quality, to my way of thinking.
DeleteI remember my mom talking freely of how she was not afraid of death, but she did not relish the idea of pain.
I agree with you and your mom.
DeleteIt does sound like your trainer's dad was ready to go home to his wife.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy watching curling as well.
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DeleteMy hubby use to curl so he explains a lot of it while it goes on. I love watching all of the winter sports although most of them you could never get me to do. Although the skiing and shooting always interested me, maybe because of my job at the time - LOL.
ReplyDeleteEvery four years it's nice to have a break from the "big 3" of Football, Basketball, and Baseball. I'll watch World Cup Soccer, but find golf best if you can be part of the gallery (I was a couple of times, at the BC Open in Endicott, NY), and hockey also best in person. But the learning about new sports that the Olympics offers me is awesome.
DeleteSo sorry about your coach's loss of his Father. For sure, they know when their transitioning. 2 days prior to his passing, Dad talked to me @ length about a conversation he had w/my brother. My brother had been gone 37 yrs. @ that time. And then he tole me he was proud of me and never lose that fie in my belly. He NEVER spoke like that! Anyway, peaceful, in his sleep . . . that's the best way to go for sure.
ReplyDeletehugs
barb
1crazydog
As we get older, knowing that it doesn't have to be scary or painful is comforting to me. Your dad gave you a wonderful gift in his final blessing.
DeleteSo fun to be able to watch and follow the Olympics! I remember enjoying it with you as a kid...then I got old enough to have a job during the time they aired. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think our dear brother ‘sort of’ knew. The reason? He gave his DD essential computer passwords just prior. What a great good man.
Hugs n love - Ace ❤️
Even if he didn't "know", he prepared! That was his nature! I cherish his life and contributions.
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