The long goodbye.
I recently watched Tony Luciani's TED talk about how his love of photography allowed him to see his aging mother in a new light. Through his beautiful photographs, he captured moments with his mother, who had dementia. These sweet moments allowed the mother and son a chance to bond before her dementia progressed. This shared memory allowed me to reflect on my relationship with my father throughout his long goodbye. My father was a professor of sociology, a lover of travel, a ferocious reader, and an all-around character. Growing up, we had weekly lunch dates at a small Persian cafe by the school, and we would discuss everything from his childhood battle with polio to religious philosophies. He was emphatic that his children could be anything that they wanted to be except uneducated. He had eternal faith in the people he loved, even when they gave him every reason to doubt their commitments. He was diagnosed at the age of 65 with proba