My brother Rick, sister Pam, and I brought our Dad to the funeral of his foster brother this past Friday. We stopped at Cloquet McDonalds for a bathroom break. While there we decided to re-fill our bladders with coffee. Rick was telling me that Dad was doing great for the first time he has ever been inside a fast food place. I laughed and told him that he was doing good, despite that he already placed his order 3 times to various customers… We laughed. I saw Dad look at this girl, or young Mom, walk by us. She had purple hair. Dad looked at her hair. I wondered what he thought but I didn’t ask.
Then some strange old man went into the ladies bathroom. A couple ladies stood in his way and asked him if he was looking for someone. I told Dad, just think; in a few years you can do that too and get away with it! Dad laughed and gave me a tree. Yes, a tree that McDonalds was giving away for Earth Day. Then I thought about that strange old man again, what WAS he doing in the ladies bathroom? Maybe he wanted to see the ladies urinals before his last days. They must have female adaptors at the urinals, right? Curiosity must have gotten the best of him I guess.
I then got another migraine headache. It always starts the same way. I lose the vision on my right side, or it goes blurry. I am used to the feeling, but it’s awkward and it catches me off-guard sometimes. Like I am drinking coffee and it happens, then I see my right arm – but it doesn’t look like my arm because I can’t see it. But I do see it when it gets in front of my face and I know it’s my arm because my brain told my arm to “bring=cup=to mouth” and like magic all of a sudden, waa laa – there is my arm with the cup of coffee at my lips. I know it’s my arm. I took some aspirin to thin my blood. I hate migraines.
Dad told us an amazing story. He remembers this little old lady that lived with his Grandpa and Grandma. She was alittle old lady that smoked a pipe. Not only did she smoke a pipe, she cleaned the black ash out and chewed it when she was done smoking. Dad told us that this lady was on the Titanic, yes, a survivor of the Titanic! Amazing! I searched the records of the Titanic survivors for her name. There seems to be some confusion about her real name, sometimes it’s not correct when one translates a Finnish name to an American name. I did find her name and age on the Titanic deceased list…maybe the records are wrong? Because she absolutely lived! Dad went on to tell us that when she was alittle child, that she remembered President Lincoln being shot. Oh my Gosh! History is so completely amazing! I looked at my Dad, with my one good non-migraine eye, and silently admired him. What a privilege to tease such a person. I need to plant my tree.
