A Tribute to My Dad

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Dad had a chance to come to U.S. visiting us two years before he passed away at the age of 86. My brother John and his wife Peggy accompanied him. John bought him a folding wheelchair to make it easier for transportation.

There were two things that Dad did consistently throughout his life. One was exercise. As early as I could remember, he got up in the morning, stretched for half an hour before he went to work. At age 84 when he came to U.S., he did the same. He got up while we were still in bed, and did his stretching for half an hour.

Another thing he did was reading newspapers. I started reading newspapers at fourth grade because my dad read newspapers. We traded sections of paper to read. I read all the sections in the newspapers, sometimes the news were horrible but I read them anyway.

As soon as my dad arrived at our home for his visit, he asked for Chinese Newspaper. Fortunately a Chinese community was twenty minutes’ drive away. I bought the current day plus some of a couple days old newspapers. That’s how the Chinese bookstore keeps them. Dad noticed the dates. I admired him for keeping up with current events at his age.

I would say that these two areas were some of Dad’s strengths and they definitely made a good impact in my life. I’m health conscious and keep up with my exercise. I also have become a life learner.

 

During Dad’s stay, we went to some local attraction such as Huntington Library. We also went on two bus tours. One took us to Grand Canyon, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Utah. Another one took us to San Francisco, Seven Miles in Monterey Bay, and Yosemite.

Dad had a great time. He expressed the interest to move to U.S. to stay with us had Mom passed away first because Mom had many major diseases. Upon his return to Hong Kong, Dad was so excited to talk to the neighbors about his visit.

Mom’s diabetes, heart problem, Alzheimer’s diseases were getting serious and required to be hospitalized. Dad went to the hospital twice a day to feed Mom with homemade meals. I wrote a post of how Dad took care of Mom. It went on for many months and took a toll on him. He had a stroke and had the right side of body paralyzed. He lost his speech, and only communicated in writing with his left hand. I went back to Hong Kong and visited him in the hospital. At that time, Mom was back to the retirement home. We made arrangement for Mom to be on wheelchair and visited Dad.

After eight months of struggling, Dad just wanted to go Home. His heart was failing. Before he passed away, my family and church friends were by his bedside, singing hymns, reading scriptures and praying. He then closed his eyes and followed the angel and went Home peacefully.DSCF0098

Dad, I love you very much. I’ll see you in a better place, someday very soon!

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