McConnell

An indie game liker

Here to be - and remain - confused by how this website works


I haven't really shared this on Twitter (not the right "vibe", I guess), and apologies in advance for this being essentially one of those "appreciate your loved ones" posts, but maybe Cohost is good for this. No real incredible insight here, fair warning.

Back in April, my dad had a pretty bad stroke. He's always been super active, and was in the midst of yet another season of his local interest travel show, Open Road (a spiritual successor to his old show, Bay Area Backroads). One day, he was off to give a talk at a conservation event in Danville when suddenly he had a stroke and was taken to John Muir in Walnut Creek.

His stroke impacted him primarily in physical ways - he can still do his voiceovers and dictate scripts - but he can't drive, walk without a walker and observation or do stairs. As such, he can't hang out at my house or casually swing by to play with the kids, or walk Coraline home from school like he loved to do. He may never again be able to do those things. He's a (sometimes impossibly) positive person which has been a big boon to his recovery and he IS progressing, however slowly.

I think the thing that I keep coming back to is that in my mind my parents are always the same age - for whatever reason, I kind of have them locked in around 39 to their early 40s. The thing is, that's how old I am now, with two young kids of my own and it's striking how fast time goes now. I wish I could go back and play with my dad in the park again, or go spend the day doing chores with my mom like I did as a kid, but I can't.

What I can do is go play in the park with my kids and bring them along for chores and hope to give them the kinds of memories my parents gave me.

I don't really have a takeaway here, I guess, other than that life isn't permanent and that being there with your loved ones is a gift, even during the most mundane moments.


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in reply to @McConnell's post:

Thank you! The forward march of time sure is persistent- just grateful he’s still around and close by!

And yep haha - that’s him! He wants to beat this thing if only to get back out on those backroads :)