Wednesday, August 5, 2009

For My Father

As you will all understand, the production of PHANTOM HARBOR has halted due to my father's unexpected turn of health a few months ago.

Initially, the doctors thought the cancer was localized in his bladder and after two unsuccessful operations, the decision was made to remove the entire bladder.

Tracy, Molly and I flew to New Orleans a week before his scheduled surgery and spent as much time with him as we could. As usual he was gracious, but it was obvious that he was being gregarious through a great deal of pain.

While we were there, they pushed the surgery to August 4th (yesterday).

During the procedure, it was discovered that my father's abdomen was fraught with cancer and there was nothing they could do but sew him back up.

At this writing, my father has been transferred out of ICU and is going into a room. In a day or so, he'll be transferred to a hospice. His physician informed me that with "aggressive" life saving techniques, the best they would hope for is 2 weeks.

This decision will be handled by him and my siblings.

I'm just thankful that we got to spend some precious time with him before this unfortunate turn of events.

So...barring any legal action...this is for my Dad.

We love you Pop...

4 comments:

Howard Beale's Ghost said...

Shannon, who sang that tune?

thefrozenpoison said...

I was in 'Puss in Boots' with your father at Le Petit. What a kind, dear man. I'm so sorry to hear this.

Phantom Harbor said...

HowardBeale's Ghost - That was Sammy Davis, Jr. I thought the tune captured the feelings we had on that trip. He was on the decline and had no idea how bad it was until we got there. He unselfishly spent his final ambulatory week with the three of us and then entered the hospital the following Sunday. 6 weeks later he passed.

PabloEsteban said...

Very touching tribute. I'm sure he'd approve.