Memories cascade or at
least mine do. Pancreatic cancer screams from headlines as Steve Jobs dies at
age 57. It’s also been two decades since actor/producer Michael Landon’s public
battle with pancreatic cancer and death at age 54.
Media reports his family
claims Jobs died “peacefully”. I hope so, my Dad died from pancreatic cancer at
age 75, fourteen years ago. I can never forget those long final hours of
passage into final freedom from pancreatic cancer spent with him.
Memories also link. My
parents first met a home computer, when a used Apple II was gifted to them by
family friends.
In their 60’s you know how
it goes when your parents ask, “Patrick, can you figure this thing out?”
My first impression was of
a mutant home appliance and IMHO with its two disc drives and DOS commands was
about the most complicated thing I had ever encountered. Of course I had no
experience, no manual, and as I remember at the time the “why” had something to
do with making Christmas card lists easier.
Anyway those Christmas card
lists never got easier, my Mom suffered a massive stroke and my Dad was her
caregiver for over a decade before she died followed by his own death just four
months later. Totally ‘old school’, computers and/or Internet never played a
role in their lives or caregiving. I never exchanged an email with my parents.
Years later when I entered
the home computer age, several years after entering the Multiple Sclerosis
caregiver era, I never forgot how complicated that old Apple II was and embraced
Microsoft Windows. I’m a PC!
Now for our daughter,
Apple computers were synonymous with school. I suspect like many of her
generation she was raised bi-OS, fluent in both Apple and Windows operating
systems.
All three of our
lives have been filled with wonder and enjoyment through Jobs’ Pixar Studios.
Today, people with their
faces buried in Apple iPhones walk into Patti’s wheelchair with increasingly
regularity.
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
videos: www.youtube.com/daddyleer
web site: caregivinglyyours.com
It is amazing how far technology has come and how far Steve Jobs helped advance it. Pancreatic cancer is a "wicked one", I am sorry your dad succumbed to it, Patrick.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh, I don't think my mom ever did much on a computer and hubby's dad refuses to have anything to do with them; his mom attempted to, but every time there was a problem she couldn't fix, she would go out and buy a new computer; she was an apple fan for a bit too, but then made the switch to a PC.
We need to just treasure the time we have with our loved ones no matter how short or how long it can be and appreciate every single day.......
take care of yourselves!!!
betty