Goodbye David

My wife lost her dad two weeks ago. David suffered from Parkinson’s. My wife, her sister and for the longest, her mother witnessed his deterioration. The past year has been rough on all of them. My mother-in-law is an iron-woman, being able to maintain her absolute composure, while running the household. It is quite something to see someone so selfless in action. She’s a ball of nervous energy, but I’m in awe at her relentlessness. I’m also surprised by how well everyone took David’s passing.

I’ve always known David as someone with Parkinson’s. He was the first individual with Parkinson’s that I ever interacted with closely. My first meeting was when my wife asked me to meet her parents. She told me David had a painful thumb, so I had to be careful while shaking hands with him. My initial years had a little more communicating between the two of us. I tried to what do what I could do in my awkward son-in-law abilities - introduce bits of technology to him, in the hope of adding something fun and different kind of interesting. He was a movie buff, and I think he made the most of what I could offer. He went from being a old-school buttoned phone user to a smartphone user using WhatsApp, YouTube, casting content to the TVs, etc.

While stubborn about the few things, he was a good person, his graciousness was a calming experience. That’s more than I can say about almost all of society.