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<\/p>\nSorry for the long delay in writing…<\/p>\n
My life has entered a new chapter; my father died on February 20th.<\/p>\n
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Things are certainly different, and for the next six months at least, I will be handling his vast empire; which means my diving weekends are shot.<\/p>\n
About five years ago, he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) – the same disease that killed Lou Gehrig, Mao Zedong, David Niven and more recently Stephen Hawking.<\/p>\n The cause is not known, but I personally think it was from him falling off a ladder several years ago or some asshole who sneezed in his face at an airport.<\/p>\n It is my educated guess, and the reasoning is out of the scope of this post.<\/p>\n With ALS, the person’s body slowly shuts down, eventually losing all mobility of the body.<\/p>\n The victim is nothing but a fully functioning mind and a set of blinking eyes.<\/p>\n There is also some very tragic psychological issues that go along with suffering the loss of all bodily movement. <\/p>\n The doctors told him that he could get a feeding tube and breathing respirator and stay alive practically indefinitely, like Stephen Hawking did.<\/p>\n But who the fuck wants to live like that?<\/p>\n They gave him three years to live.<\/p>\n His one dying wish, that I could accomplish, was to go to the grand opening of the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum<\/a>, in Winterset, Iowa in May of 2015.<\/p>\n Yes, he was a life-long John Wayne fan – except for the Duke’s stance on the Vietnam war.<\/p>\n He often complained to me that I didn’t give him any grandchildren. <\/p>\n I told him, “It’s hard for me to even get a date, but John Wayne had kids into his 50’s, so I still have hope.”<\/p>\n “Yeah, but the problem is, you’re not John Wayne,” he said.<\/p>\n Here’s the posts of our trip, if you missed it:<\/p>\n Classified Mission To Monument Valley<\/a><\/p>\n Classified Mission To Iowa \u2013 Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n Classified Mission To Iowa \u2013 Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n Winterset Rodeo And The Opening Of The John Wayne Museum<\/a><\/p>\n The End Of My Trip And Other Odds And Ends<\/a><\/p>\n Since the trip, he continued to slowly decline.<\/p>\n He got harder and harder to understand when he would speak, but he never bothered to learn to use his Tobii,<\/a> which would have given him a computerized voice.<\/p>\n He stopped driving two years ago.<\/p>\n About eight months ago, he started to need help getting up out of bed and up out of his chair.<\/p>\n Late last year, he could barely eat and needed assistance in other daily functions.<\/p>\n In January, we hired a part-time care giver.<\/p>\n![\"Tony](\"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/wp-content\/tony_sopran0_look_alike.jpg\")
\nPeople often mistook my Dad for Tony Soprano.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Group](\"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/wp-content\/group_photo_iowa.jpg\")
\nMy sister Kate (Secret Agent K), my father and me at the John Wayne Museum – 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n
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