Never Ready

About three years ago my fathers' dementia got bad enough that he could not get out of bed.  So since then he has been bed ridden and his health has been getting worse a little each year.  The doctors told us that he would be the same and then he would just get worse, and then he could stay at that level and then get worse again down the road.

Well, my father, Chapple D. Curington, died Sunday night, June 14th around 8pm Central time.

I titled this Never Ready because we have known that he could go quick or he could have lived longer.  When I was younger and we would argue, he told me that when you stood at the casket looking on your dead relative there was nothing else you could do for them.  If the last time you talked to them you left things in a bad way, there was nothing you could do now.  When we moved from Enterprise in 2000, every time we left after a visit I always made sure everything was square between us.  If it happened not to be, I would call him when I got home and make sure it was.  So, everything was good between us the last time I talked to him and he knew who I was.  But although everything was good, something like this you are never ready for.

The picture is from 1996, the fall, we had to quit picking peanuts early to go to Olan Mills to take pictures.  Krutchen was around a year old and we had just found out Kim was pregnant with Katie.  I remember being surprised that Daddy did not complain about us having to quit early.  When we started picking peanuts there was not an off day or a Sunday, it was all peanut picking days until the harvesting was done.

My father was a good man, I had the opportunity to work with him most of my life, this I would not trade for anything.  Thank you Lord for letting me have that opportunity, and thank you Daddy for teaching me how to work and how to live with respect for myself and others.

Later.