He was in the hospital, and it was the last week of his life.
He also wrote some very brief I love you notes to mom, and some things we never could quite make out. After the stroke, his hand control and vision were problematic.
Jody was his home health nurse, or really, more accurately his angel on earth, and his Crush.
Dad could be a difficult person at times, and when it came time for him to have a home health nurse, well, we all knew it could be an unpleasant ride.
Then Jody showed up. I wasn't in Ohio when Dad met Jody, but I am pretty sure he fell for her before she got both feet in the front door... He'd do anything for her. She came 3 days a week, then 2 days a week, as his health improved. Every day he would ask mom if Jody was coming today. When she finally said yes, he'd say he needed to get a shower. Now, Dad was not one to be showering all the time, so that kinda fun to see him ready to get in that shower cause his girl was coming to take care of him.
As luck would have it, she fell for him, too. She bonded so closely with Dad that she promised him (he lived for 2 things mom and fishing) that her young son's first fishing trip would be to Dad's favorite fishing hole - Possum Creek (1/2 mile from Rancho Kia Rio). Her intent was to bring him out last spring or early summer, once Dad was back on his feet, and let Dad show him how to fish.
Well, Jody left the home health nurse business a few weeks after Dad died. Some months ago she called mom to reconnect. After many failed attempts to connect, we met Jody for lunch yesterday.
Last summer, her own dad wanted to take his little grandson (now 6) fishing. Jody told him he would have to wait until she was able to take the boy to Possum Creek so he could have his first fishing experience at Dad's favorite space.
Jody means so much to us, to Mom, to Dad, and I know to all my brothers and sisters who got to meet her. She was truly an angel for Dad. Now, she is an angel for mom.
We'll be connecting up regularly with her from now on and she is taking mom to lunch on her birthday in April. Dad would have liked that. We'll make plans for her son to go to Possum Creek and my guess is it will probably be on his birthday in May.
Well, it has been an emotional few days. Tommorrow, the 15th, it will have been a year since I stood in my parents kitchen with my arms wrapped around my dad, peering deep into his blue eyes, knowing he was dying and listening to him ask me to move back. The words fell effortlessly and without hestiation out of my mouth. Truth be told, I would have promised him anything in that moment, and then made good on it.
These next few months are probably going to be the hardest for me, emotionally. Well, here is picture of Jody and Mom at Chicago's Uno Grill in Dayton.
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