Today was a good day. I am not even really sure why - I can't really put my finger on it, but it was a good day. I started off bummed to see an email from DC about my poor performance on Sunday - it confirmed what I had thought, but was difficult all the same (He wasn't mean in any way, just honest, but brutally so - it is okay, I needed it) - I hate to think I have gone backward, but I think it is inevitable.
I worked, I went to the gym, I went to Flying Irish. Made dad food, chatted, watched the hail. He and C went to a movie, which I think was probably more to appease me than anything - I just know how much they used to do it and enjoy it, and it had been a very long time since they had gone out together, so figured they should. I think they both enjoyed it though.
Running was good - it was the St Paddy's day run, so everyone was donning green and in good spirits. We did the Bloomsday course backwards, which just seemed weird - DOWN Doomsday?? But it was fun.
I started thinking about dad tonight, but not getting sad about things, just thinking about him and all the lives he has touched, which we keep hearing about any time we turn around. This one was special though: at his cardiologist's is a very cute bubbly redhead girl who is always very happy and chipper. She obviously has to see some shit, and she doesn't have to always have a smile on, but I haven't seen her without one, ever. I can't even imagine what could get her down. So over the course of the months, year, whathaveyou, she has gotten to see my dad quite a lot. Here is a guy with a terminal illness. He doesn't have to care, he could be like 99% of the people who are cordial but don't pay much attention to the gal at the reception desk - no doubt most people are perfectly friendly, but not as FRIENDS. Not Dad. This poor girl knows my whole life story from his prattling on to her, and he always, ALWAYS asks how she is and what she has been up to, and how is school, etc. He doesn't have to - he could have a shit day and not want to talk, but he does, never fail. He treats her like a human being, because she is one, and he treats her like a friend, because she has become one. For all intents and purposes, she is a stranger, one of the people we brush by in daily life who help us in small ways that we cannot fathom, that we often - most of us - take for granted.
So tonight I saw her at the run, and we chatted, and she asked about him. And she said something that nearly made me cry. She said, of all the hundreds of people she sees each week, month, etc. there are about four people who really stand out to her as special people, who go out of their way to be nice to her and engage her, and Dad is one of them. I wanted to hug her for saying that.
We have been inundated with cards and sentiments from dozens of people who write to Dad to express their sorrow over his illness. People who call him a life-long friend, a dear soul who has touched their lives. In most of the cases, he is their DENTIST!!! But he has come to mean so much to these people because he cares, and he treats people how he would want to be treated, even if it means pushing the cart back into the store in the snow, to save the teenage kid from pushing back one extra late in the evening. He just thinks about others, and really searches for the good in people, each person who comes into his life, be it a bank teller, a cashier, a waitress, a receptionist. He doesn't care who you are, but you have a story, and he is interested, and if you show an ounce of respect and determination, you will earn his. And that is a great feeling.
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