Into Each Life A Little Rain Must Fall

 

Be still sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds the sun is shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life a little rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.               

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

And the rain certainly did fall into my life last Wednesday when I received the news that my father, Roy Lenthall, had passed away.

 

My father had been in a nursing home for the past two years; approximately two years prior to his admission to the nursing home he had suffered a brain bleed.  Following the brain bleed my mother cared for my father at home.  Being a carer for a loved one is a difficult job, my mother was devoted to my father, determined that he be able to stay in the home that he built and loved for as long as possible.  Sadly my father’s condition deteriorated and his care needs became such that he needed 24 hour professional care.

 

During his life my father was an active, intelligent man.  He enjoyed life and was fortunate enough to be able to take early retirement allowing my mother and him to travel and have many happy times together.  My parents did visit the farm a couple of times and my father loved spending time visiting with the alpacas and helping Ric with various farm projects.  But during his last visit here I was aware that something was not quite right, repeated conversation, confusion and unusually heavy periods of sleep were clues that something was amiss with my father.

 

In the last two weeks of my father’s life he suffered a couple of strokes, he had had mini strokes since his brain bleed, but these last strokes were larger and his recovery each time was less.  We were warned by the doctors that my fathers health was fading and that we needed to prepare ourselves for his passing, but you can never really be prepared for the loss of a loved one.

 

Now my father is at peace and our family is making preparations for his funeral in my home country of England.  I will be traveling back for the funeral and staying in England for a couple of weeks to help my mother in whatever way I can.  My brother Chris who lives in Italy was fortunately in England when my father passed away and has stayed with my mother since, my brother John who also lives in the United States will be traveling back to England the same day as me and we will meet up at the airport to travel to my mother’s apartment. 

 

So the blog entries have been few in recent weeks, first while I held down the fort during Ric’s absence when spare time was short and then during the weeks when I knew my father was preparing to leave us, at that time my thoughts and my focus needed to be with my family.  Ric will be making blog entries as and when he can while I am away.

 

For many 2008 has been a hard year, and sadly for many it has been a year of loss.  The words  “Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life a little rain must fall”, from the Longfellow verse at the top of this blog entry have seemed to be all too true in this last year.  

 

For our family the loss of my father is a great one, he was a kind, gentle, dignified man who unfortunately had his dignity taken away from him in his final years due to ill health.   Our wish is that we restore that dignity for him through his funeral service and through our memories of the great man who was my father.

 

Rosemary