Theresa Lewis

Having my dad living with me for the last ten years of his life was just about the sweetest time in my life. To me, it was truly an honor that I will never forget. Dad was the perfect housemate. While he did offer his opinion on things at times, he was never obtrusive in any way. For the most part, dad did whatever he wanted and we never clashed. My husband and I respected his age and enjoyed his pearls of wisdom.

 

Mondays were my day off work. Mondays, I devoted to chores such as laundry, house cleaning, planning our family’s meals for the week and bathing our two dogs.

 

One Monday, while I flitted from one chore to the next, I paid little attention to my dad who was sitting at the dining room table eating his breakfast. Normally, in winter, dad would eat hot cereal for breakfast, but in summer, he would eat cold cereal. Usually he ate cornflakes.

 

However, when I went out for groceries that weekend, he asked me to get him “Special K” cereal for a change. Honestly, I didn’t see much of a difference between the two cereals, but I honored his request.

 

So, there he sat munching away. Without really looking at him, I asked how he liked Special K. You know the cereal. It’s the one with the shapely woman in a bright red bathing suit adorning the box.

 

Dad let out a big sigh and said he didn’t think he could follow the Special K diet. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. His eyes were bulging out. In front of my dad was a huge bowl of cereal that he was struggling to eat and beside him was a two cup measuring cup of more cereal.

 

Mentally, I said to myself that he must have been awfully hungry that morning. As far as I was concerned, even if he ate that amount of Special K every day, he was never going to look like the girl in the red bathing suit on the box. He had neither age nor gender on his side to pull that one off.

 

Dad said that he was supposed to eat four cups of Special K every day for a healthy diet. It can’t be so, I thought. I picked up the box and read it for myself. The instructions read four ounces daily. I told my dad that four ounces was only half a cup. He thought it read four cups daily. He was greatly relieved to hear the truth. We both laughed at that one.

 

 

THE END