Hearts

Ruby,

A year ago today a doctor said there was a hole in your heart and you would likely not survive. Mom delivered the news to me while I was in Orlando, Florida enjoying a work conference. The unconfirmed possibility that my Baby Girl might die and there was nothing I could do shook me at my core.

This afternoon my father was diagnosed with Progressive Supraneural Palsy, a form of Parkinson's disease. It will -- as it has apparently been doing for years -- continually lay him low, and lower toward total immobility, much as ALS did to his own father, although with increasing dementia adding to the burden.

Apathy. Moodiness. Depression. Weakness. Dizziness. Falling. The diagnosis makes sense of it all in a way and I now have something I can blame for this other than my father himself.

Last year we learned that your heart was good. Papa Russ has a good heart too, and I will always remember that.


Dad