I Begged My Dad Not To Get Old

I never thought my dad would get old. I begged him not to. Begging him always worked for me in the past. At 5'9", my dad was a giant of a man. He was a high school principal and his passion for his school, his teachers, and his students could not be matched. One night at a high school football game, a player got injured. My dad jumped a fence and ran to the boy. He stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. My dad broke his leg jumping the fence, but didn't notice until he was home and his leg started to swell. Wimp was not in his vocabulary. Today, he is in assisted living struggling with arthritis and type 2 diabetes. In spite of the tremendous pain, he smiles and doesn't complain. And he is still a giant of a man!