The horses were racing across the TV screen, tails flying, followed by a cloud of dust. They were beautiful sight and I sat for a moment when I came home from work to join my father in his afternoon viewing.
"Dad", I wondered aloud, "Why don't you have the sound on for the movie?"
"I don't care anything about the movie. I just love watching the horses gallop across the prairie."
My father had made his home with us a few months before and with all of the commotion of moving to a house that would accommodate him smoothly into our lives, we had not noticed that his diminished hearing had interfered with his TV watching. Most of his day he read. He read all the magazines and newspapers we had and all the books I could borrow from the library. Each evening at the dinner table he would share what he had learned that day from his reading or TV.
"I visited China today", he would begin. Then he related something he had picked up from the Discovery channel. His world continued to grow from his living room chair, reading or traveling through TV, the travel he could never afford during his lifetime.
Bob and I had carefully purchased a house in a neighborhood filled with retirees and close to his church and stores that he would enjoy browsing during his daily walks. The house had large windows for light that we read was very important for the elderly, and a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. While living in the north woods my father's favorite hobby was cutting trees for firewood. Because we lived in the Twin Cities, we had a large load of firewood hauled into our back yard so that my father could spend his days sawing and piling wood and moving smaller amounts into the house for daily cold-weather use in our fireplace. We also chose a fenced in back yard to shelter his small dog that I had brought to him when he still lived in northern Minnesota to keep him company after my mother died.
Dad move in a summer before his 87th birthday. He took his daily walks down the alley with his dog, greeting all of the neighbors, and then he would go back to our back yard and tend to his daily chores of cutting the wood. In the afternoon, after his nap, he would read, then turn on the TV, switching the channel to "Little House on the Prairie" when his granddaughter came home from school. The only time he did not adjust his schedule for her was during baseball season when he had to watch his beloved Twins team practice and play games. One year during their Spring practice in Florida he announced confidently when I came home from work, "The Twins are going to win the series this year!" And they did, and we celebrated with him, Homer Hankies and all.
Bob hooked up Dad's TV with headphones so that he could enjoy sound and the rest of us did not get blasted when we arrived home. During the years he lived with us the volume on his set gradually increased as his hearing decreased, but he did manage to not only watch his beloved horses in old westerns, but he could once more hear the sound of galloping, neighing and snorting.
Each year as we noticed the volume on the TV increasing, the sound of the chain saw decreased. During his first years with us, he cut, sawed and hauled, while keeping the fireplace burning all day and night during the cold spells. In his final years he still worked to keep the fireplace throwing heat during the day hours. In his last year the fireplace lay cold and dark except for the holidays when Bob had time to get it glowing for our holiday gatherings.
My father took pride in work and contributing to the household. He took his turn cooking meals when he first moved in with us. As his health weakened, along with his hearing, he fretted that he was becoming a burden, no matter how much we said to the contrary. He brought joy and love into our lives and until his death, he continued to share his wisdom through his stories of the past, his viewpoints of the present and his hopes for the future.
What great gifts he gave to our family! His uplifting spirit, positive attitude and forward-looking outlook will always be a part of us. Not long before he died he said, "I want to keep on living because I wonder what will happen next."
He lived through incredible changes during his 92 years. At times he struggled briefly with them, but for the most part he embraced the new advancements. As I grow older his words continue to inspire me. Today Bob and I live in the West where the horses are a common sight. I feel a quick tinge of regret that he did not live to see them in all their glory, in real time. Whenever I look at horses grazing in a field, I remember, and I am grateful. I am grateful for my life and warm memories of my father.
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