
FINAL WORDS
The
nurse gently turned off the machine and left us.
There
was so much that I needed to say. I wanted to tell him I was sorry for all the
times I had let my youthful arrogance win and I didn't listen to him, and how
proud I was of all he'd done.
Maybe
a quote from Shakespeare would suffice: "Good-night, sweet Prince"
from Hamlet, maybe, but I could not remember the rest of it, and they would not
be my words.
In
the end, I just said "I love you", and held my father's hand as he
died.