a year ago...

just over a year ago i moved in to my new place. a year ago mom, dad and my aunt ellen came to stay for the weekend. my place was a mess. boxes and stuff everywhere. i didn't even have cable set up yet. the movers had literally been there a week before. and i hadn't even been there a full week as i went to muncie for a celebration and the re-naming and dedication of the ball state university art museum in honor of my great uncle david owsley. the four of us drove back to chicago together.

all of us made a trip to target that first night. we bought some pillows and sheets and an air mattress for dad to sleep on as i didn't have any furniture in my third bedroom yet. ellen stayed on my pull out couch. mom and i shared my room as we typically do.

mom and ellen helped me empty boxes and dad helped break them down. dad and i would carry the broken down boxes and other recyclable materials down all 5 flights of stairs (60 steps... mom counted them once). dad and i drove to the nature center where there is a large recycle bin and deposited all of that cardboard. i still remember how gorgeous the leaves on the trees were that day in lincoln park. i took a picture. but i can't find it at the moment.

dad helped hang my many pictures as mom and i and ellen too decided where they should go. that was always dad's job when he visited or moved. to hang up the heavy stuff i didn't know how to or couldn't do by myself. or didn't want to do... dad would meticulously measure and hang in just the right place centered on the wall. sometimes if mom and i left dad to hang on his own, the picture being hung would be too high on the wall. dad was tall... and he put it where it made sense to him. mom and i would always feel bad when we'd have to tell him it was just too high.... but being the patient man he was, he'd always rehang it where requested.

this happens to be a pic of dad hanging my one picture in the kitchen. pretty sure i did a post about this awhile ago now that i think about it... 

 

 

it's hard to believe this all happened a year ago. there was no cancer clouding our days. that we knew about anyways. that stupid tumor was probably growing at this point. but dad seemed so healthy that weekend. and just fine. and none of us knew the ride we were in for. none of us knew that by thanksgiving our lives would be so very very different. how fast a year goes by.

i was watching parenthood tonight. i skipped last week's episode and probably should have skipped this week and well, probably should just quit watching altogether for that matter. for those of you who don't watch the show, one of the mom's was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. they told their daughter away at college this week. and while i wasn't away at college, i was away... here in chicago. and i remember getting that phone call. and i remember thinking, nah. can't be. mom always worries too much. i just saw dad. he was fine. but then the call came that it was indeed cancer. and here i was so very very far away. and scared. and upset. and having no idea what to do, but knowing that i really really just needed to go home. and i can't remember if i got a flight out that night or the next day... but i think it was that night. and there was still nothing i could do or that mom or dad could do... but it just felt good to be together. and on parenthood, at the end of the episode, the daughter comes back home from ny to the bay area. and it just brought back so many memories.