I love the idea of fulfilling a living wish. Far too often we wait until it's too late to honor the people we love. Today is the day to make a wish come true, to consider the needs of a parent, family member or friend.
My dad, John A. Hoyt, is currently residing in a nursing home. Sadly, his primary living wish is to go home. Currently, that is not a wish we can honor as his daily care needs require twenty-four hour round the clock care. We have promised him we will bring him home for his final days. It's a really sad statement, one we struggle with. As a family we would love to honor his current wish and have him at home. Practically, and for his health and my mother's health - both physical and mental, we have to provide him with the best care possible at a facility located close to home. He is visited frequently by friends and family from all stages of his life. He is loved well.
Another way we honored a living wish for our dad was to create a book in his memory. He always told us he was going to write a book called, Letters to my Children. It would have been fantastic! As the oldest, I figured there might be more about me than anyone else. When it became clear he was never going to write the book, my sister, Julie Hoyt Dorman and I gathered a collection of things my dad had written throughout his lifetime - speeches, sermons, poems and letters. Julie designed the book and its cover. I edited and compiled the written selections. The end result was a book called, I Live but Once. The book was titled after a poem of the same name. My dad could not be prouder of that book - you'd think he was a New York Times best selling author! We are happy we could honor him in this way.
If you have a loved one you want to honor, there are an unlimited number of ways to do that. For suggestions, check out a book I co-authored with Scott Farnsworth, Like a Library Burning - Sharing and Saving Stories of a Lifetime.
Fulfilling Your Aging Parent’s “Living Wishes” | Business Wire
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