Jennefer and I visited my Dad in June, for his 100th birthday! He is struggling lately, showing more signs of his age, which is slowing him down quite a bit. We tried to make a few temporary changes to his schedule while we were there - taking him out to some favorite places for breakfast and dinner - but it didn't go well, and we ended up putting almost all of his usual routine back in place, and just tried to be in the places where he would normally be, during his regular day. This photo is from breakfast at Sara's Kitchen, a delightful breakfast restaurant just across the road from where Dad lives.
Things were quite different this visit, since Adele had a bad fall in February, and she's no longer living in the beautiful large house she's been in for years. Instead, she's living in a small room at the La Posada rehab facility. For Dad, it's not so much of a change, since he just has to get a ride to, and home from, a different (closer) location every evening, to visit her. She still feeds him dinner, since their dining room allows her to bring him in as a guest every evening. Their schedule is quite rigid, and we "kids" found the need to get out for walks every day, even in the blazing hot Florida sun, to decompress and recoup.
A wonderfully helpful family friend Anita, who lives near him in North Palm Beach, put together his 100th birthday party at the Chesterfield Hotel in Palm Beach. He wanted to keep his party small, so there were *only* 30 family and friends there. My sister Mikele and her husband Bob came from California, and her daughter Dorothy came from Colorado. My cousin Rebecca came from New Hampshire. Dad's good friend Rick from the 1960s made arrangements to surprise him, by flying out from California with his wife Lynn and his son Corey, who now lives in Portland, Oregon. Dad's Pan Am friend Rich, who flew with him in the 1960-70s, including one very memorable and adventurous flight, has been driving down from northern Florida for years. Dad did a good job standing up and addressing everyone during the party - he seemed very pleased to acknowledge that he had visitors from each corner of the country.
We had a bit of a catastrophe on our last day there. I got a text that morning from Bob, saying he had fallen in the hotel shower, and broken his wrist. He was in a lot of pain, and had a very swollen hand, with his wrist at a very odd angle - clearly a serious break. The paramedics arrived shortly, bundled him up while we packed his things, and transported him to the nearby hospital's Emergency Department. He told the ED people that he still wanted us all to catch our flight home, so they made the extra effort to stabilize his wrist, and pronounced him ready for traveling, within 3 hours. We had to wait 45 minutes for his pain prescription at the local pharmacy, so we grabbed a quick breakfast. Then we were on our way to Ft Lauderdale, supposedly a 1 hour drive, just in time to be delayed by several traffic jams on I-95, which lost us so much time, that after skipping our gas fill-up stop, and turning in our rental car, we only had 5 minutes to spare, before they closed the aircraft door behind us. Bob took advantage of our delays on the highway, to rebook his flight to go straight home that evening, skipping his planned visit with us. What a trip!
