I took my dad to the Christmas party hosted by one of our sister churches in my country of birth. This was the first time I have attended a party with my dad that I was looking forward to going to. I dressed up in a red dress, his favorite color and arrived to pick him up. He was aware I was taking him out to a surprise dinner. When I arrived, the first thing he asked was to take him to various places which I could not. COVID is still a huge threat here for older people and for this event we were making an exception. 

I was a bit sad he wasn’t as excited when I said we won’t have time to make stops. I decided to not focus on that. We prayed and I was able to help him re-focus on the evening I had planned for us. 

When we arrived at the event he was blown away. At the beginning he was so quiet, and remained like that for a while. I asked if he was okay.  His silence caused me to worry. He said, “I am okay. I am just happy. I have never had this kind of experience. Beautiful women, classy women, who are clearly filled with God. Look at this. God’s children celebrating together. This is what children of God should look like. People enjoying life with no alcohol. I feel like I am in paradise.” 

From time to time he became quiet and just observed and said, thank you God, thank you God. 

He even began to get up from the wheelchair. He wanted to dance with me. We danced and it was priceless. He told me, “You danced with Cory when he was on a chair because he had hurt is leg, now me.”

He was not happy when I had to take him back to the assisted living facility, while people were still partying. 

During the party my dad was as loud as he could be. Cheering on people while playing games. He was encouraging sisters that weren’t getting up to have fun to get up. He was even encouraging a sister and said, “Good for you. You ate two plates of soup.” You see, this sister had not eaten yet, she had come into the party feeling a little flustered and he was encouraging her to eat something. 

In the taxi he said, “Thank you daughter for this evening. We have memories to remember.” 

What a joyous moment. Honestly I must confess, I selfishly planned this for me to experience something at 50 years old that I never did as a child. 

But, what was more priceless was watching my dad enjoy himself. Suddenly, having an experience for myself became second to seeing my dad enjoy an evening in what he called “Paradise.”

Sometimes the “world” we live in seems so normal that we have no idea there is a world out of it.  Where people truly are able to be authentic, work through differences. Someone can disagree with what someone else does, but still love them and not judge them. That’s what my dad saw last night, a world he never thought existed. 

I took my dad to a dance. I laughed and danced. We even had an embarrassing moment (that will stay with those at the party). What a night. What a memory. What an adventure. Priceless. 

Sometimes it takes getting through some obstacles but it’s worth the end result.

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” Theodor Seuss Geisel