麻豆约拍

Good morning

For the last couple of years, during September I鈥檝e really noticed how the daylight fades a little earlier each day, and the nights lengthen.听听 It鈥檚 been a particular concern, because my father has had trouble with his eyesight for a while and his driving license has been restricted to driving only in daylight.听

And to make matters worse, a few weeks ago Dad had a routine eye test that revealed his peripheral vision had become so poor that his license was no longer valid, making it illegal for him to drive - at any time.

My brother and sister and I got together and talked about what to do.听 How do you tell a socially active, very independent man 听that he shouldn鈥檛 be behind the wheel?听 He taught each of us how to drive, and shared his brilliant, sure-fire method for perfect parallel parking. It felt dreadful spelling out to Dad what that eye test result meant and even worse to take his keys and drive the car away.听 We told ourselves that it was for the best, that we did it out of love and for his own safety.听 He took it pretty well, sharing that he did find twilight a particularly tough time to drive but even so, my sister and I agonised later over whether we had left him isolated and lonely.

We rang him guiltily the next day, to arrange to drive him wherever he wanted to go, but he had already been busy, figuring out which of the neighbours shop at the same grocery store as he does and arranging other trips with a local senior carpool. Dad was doing better than we were, getting on with things and teaching us still, at the age of 89, a lesson even more valuable than perfect parallel parking.

听