Page 85 - Musings 2021
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watches football matches with him late into the night. He sees a man that would sacrifice
anything to avoid destroying his childhood with the shattering effect and the trauma of
hospital visits, chemotherapy, and fights with nurses, homeopathic doctors, bad news,
midnight sobs and worst of all - false hope. But more importantly, what he feels is the
reassuring touch of a father blocking out the adult world. A white knight or a gallant prince,
that protects and comforts before returning to the battleground. Except that my battle is
already lost.
“Daddy”, he whispers.
“Can I take photos from your phone?”
“Of course.”
I will tell him what his father is facing and how his poor old body stacks against the malaise.
I know that years into the future, he will be thankful that his childhood was preserved by a
blissful ignorance. At least I hope he will be. I just hope that he will not be mad that I did not
tell him that his mother is a witness and that his father is a liar. All this, just to preserve that
wide-eyed smile and that virgin mind. And I hope that he will understand what I went
through to maintain the eternal sunshine of his spotless mind.
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