Caregiver's Diary: Driven To Distraction

The night before the test, he called my wife. He had a bad cold and joked that maybe the examiner would take pity on him. My wife urged him to cancel and rebook. But my father-in-law went anyway. In the waiting room, he told us, he was shocked that he could hear the other old folks reading out the line of letters – always the same one – over and over again – through the closed door. In desperation, he memorized them, and briefly contemplated cheating. But this is a guy that has never cheated at anything in his entire life.

As it turned out, he didn’t need to. Whether the lines were bigger than he had imagined, or his eye specialist had been needlessly alarmist, he read the line of letters without difficulty. And then he aced the written test. His spirits were flying as he reported the results. He could drive his beloved white Caddy for another two whole years – without fear of someone taking it away from. The relief in his voice was palpable.

So was his joy.

Keywords: caregivers, diary