Memories and Grief

I'm five years old. My dad is tucking me in where my bed lay. The roof sort of slanted down and after he tucked me in he lifted up and thud his head hit the roof. I giggled right away. My dad's eyes met mine and suddenly he let out this howl of pain, grabbed his head and started running out of the room making a sobbing sound I had never heard him do before. Being the little trooper I was I jumped up out of bed in my pajamas with the little feeties sewn in and chased after him. I caught up to him in the kitchen and when I rounded the corner into the kitchen there he is with blood seeming all over his face. I was smiling and as soon as I was about to shift into fear he holds up a big bottle of ketchup. The guy had poured it all over himself and as soon as I saw the ketchup I just burst out laughing. He started giggling. We ran to each other and hugged each other with the smattering of ketchup all over us both. My dad always had a lesson. I'm not sure what it was in that moment maybe it was not to laugh at someone else's misfortune or to always instinctively lead with compassion or empathy but that hug I will never ever forget. This is the 10th anniversary of my dad's death. He died October 10th six days before I would be elected in a special election to be a United States Senator and the end of his life was He started having serious dementia in his final years and death finally took him but I look back and know now that death can steal a lot of things so can Parkinson's so can dementia but it can't rob us of those memories. For anybody going through it right now with a parent struggling with dementia with grief over the loss of a parent I pray for you that the pain that you feel the hurt the challenges you're facing that those dim with time as the rich ketchup like memories become more bright brilliant and sweet.