{"id":2960,"date":"2020-08-15T23:08:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960"},"modified":"2020-08-15T23:08:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T23:08:14","slug":"hello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960","title":{"rendered":"Hello."},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of you checked in with me just to see how I was doing because I stopped posting. To be honest…I just didn’t know what to say.\u00a0 To be upbeat seemed glib, to be honest was depressing.\u00a0 I wrote a couple of posts but just couldn’t bring myself to post them.\u00a0 But today is different.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today is the anniversary of my dad’s death.\u00a0 Some of you know he passed away from Parkinson’s.\u00a0 Having lived with it up close, my heart drops every time I hear someone was diagnosed with this disease.<\/p>\n

So here’s what I learned…<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You think you’re ok, and then you’re not<\/strong>. The grief comes on like it just happened.\u00a0 You can’t breathe, your eyes tear, you can’t speak because of the lump in your throat.\u00a0 and then you have days when you get annoyed because people leave dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher!<\/li>\n
  2. There is nothing you won’t do for someone you love when they need you<\/strong>.\u00a0 I remember crazy things, like pretending to call Korean Airlines to book my dad a ticket because he was convinced he had a business trip.\u00a0 I told him every flight was booked and we had to call tomorrow.\u00a0 I would make up fake invoices when my dad went for a few hours to assisted care to give my mom a break….explaining to dad that it was his “office”. (He saw my math error!)\u00a0 I slept in the next room to take him to the bathroom (I had to keep a diary for the doctor on times and amounts).\u00a0 And you know what? I’d do it all again.<\/li>\n
  3. Other people’s kindness will overwhelm you.<\/strong>\u00a0 Our medical people were fantastic….they were reassuring…both to my dad and to the family.\u00a0 They were optimistic even in the face of the inevitability of the disease.\u00a0 But it’s also the random acts of kindness: we went out to eat with my dad for breakfast in a country restaurant.\u00a0 We got ready to leave, and found out someone had already paid our bill.<\/li>\n
  4. You need to be the advocate when they can’t<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0Needless to say, I was not easy to deal with.\u00a0 I would spend time grilling the doctors, wanting to know what we needed to do. I would be on the phone with the drug company.\u00a0 I would research the Internet.\u00a0 \u00a0Doctors don’t know everything….and they aren’t infallible.\u00a0 My dad couldn’t always explain what was happening to him… but I could.<\/li>\n
  5. They know<\/strong>. I had moments with my dad I remember (sneaking him a second piece of pie when Mom wasn’t looking, giving him a shave, cooking breakfast).\u00a0 \u00a0But the reality is that while I am glad I was with him at the end, what counts is all the time you’ve spent with them beforehand.\u00a0 So don’t wait for the grand gesture. Make the deposits now…often.\u00a0 Whether or not you’re with them at the end…..they know.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some of you checked in with me just to see how I was doing because I stopped posting. To be honest…I just didn’t know what to say.\u00a0 To be upbeat seemed glib, to be honest was depressing.\u00a0 I wrote a couple of posts but just couldn’t bring myself to post them.\u00a0 But today is different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHello. - My Lessons Learned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hello. - My Lessons Learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of you checked in with me just to see how I was doing because I stopped posting. To be honest…I just didn’t know what to say.\u00a0 To be upbeat seemed glib, to be honest was depressing.\u00a0 I wrote a couple of posts but just couldn’t bring myself to post them.\u00a0 But today is different.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"My Lessons Learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Grace Park\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Grace Park\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Grace Park\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782\"},\"headline\":\"Hello.\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960\"},\"wordCount\":511,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960\",\"name\":\"Hello. - My Lessons Learned\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"width\":480,\"height\":640},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?p=2960#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hello.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/\",\"name\":\"My Lessons Learned\",\"description\":\"(and still learning)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782\",\"name\":\"Grace Park\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Grace Park\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mylessonslearned.co\\\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hello. - My Lessons Learned","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hello. - My Lessons Learned","og_description":"Some of you checked in with me just to see how I was doing because I stopped posting. To be honest…I just didn’t know what to say.\u00a0 To be upbeat seemed glib, to be honest was depressing.\u00a0 I wrote a couple of posts but just couldn’t bring myself to post them.\u00a0 But today is different.","og_url":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960","og_site_name":"My Lessons Learned","article_published_time":"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Grace Park","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Grace Park","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960"},"author":{"name":"Grace Park","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/#\/schema\/person\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782"},"headline":"Hello.","datePublished":"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960"},"wordCount":511,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960","url":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960","name":"Hello. - My Lessons Learned","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","datePublished":"2020-08-15T23:08:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/#\/schema\/person\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","width":480,"height":640},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=2960#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hello."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/","name":"My Lessons Learned","description":"(and still learning)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/#\/schema\/person\/2ba6f6f4cc7db205d4df8346745ee782","name":"Grace Park","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a75caf4d19ae58a9e6986ba4f06867ca41c1c566fe3cf01d431ef92460b151a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Grace Park"},"url":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?author=6"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5P6Ou-hello","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mylessonslearned.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dad-rotated.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2964,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions\/2964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}