The Last Picture Show

A couple months ago I was standing in my parents kitchen when Dad mentioned to me that there was a movie coming out that he wanted to see. It peeked my interest because it's been a while since he's seen a movie in the theater.
Dad is slipping. Every day there's just a tiny bit more gone then there was the day before. It'll be quite a while but soon he'll be gone. Even now he's not the dad I knew. Dad is a gentle soft spoken man. Anyone who knows me, or has read this blog at all knows that in his day he was anything but gentle and soft spoken.
I miss the mean bastard he used to be. I want him back. I want my Dad back.
Going to movies was the thing we did when I was a boy that I loved to do with him more then anything else. The day he took me to see Star Wars stands out as perhaps our perfect day together.
So when Dad mentioned he wanted to see the movie Cinderella Man I happily agreed to take him.
The nearest showing was in the Quad Cities a good 40 to 45 minutes drive away. On the way down we had a nice talk. Dad was very lucid and seemed to be enjoying himself greatly. We grabbed a bite to eat at a burger place. It was just a very pleasant day.
It was while we were in the movie theater that it hit me. I was sitting next to him and they were playing the coming attractions. I looked over at him and saw sitting there smiling. As I looked at my father I suddenly understood.
This was it. The very last time I would see a movie with him. It had been almost 4 years since he saw his last movie. He had declined greatly in that time. I knew it took a great effort for him to come to this.
For the next two and half hours I sat next to my Dad and watched a very good movie. But even more then that I sat next him and just enjoyed being with him.
Going to movies with Dad was fun to me because being the youngest of 5 kids it was one of the only ways to get Dad all alone to myself. Even though we didn't speak much during the movie it was still time we had together. It was during those times I felt the closest to my Dad.
About half way though the movie I could tell Dad was getting a little confused. He was losing track of what was happening in front of him. He'd ask me a question, or tell me a fact about boxing he'd just mentioned a few minutes earlier.
I didn't mind.
For the last time a movie ended for my Dad and myself. We got up and walked out of the theater. During the drive home we talked. Dad told me many of the things he had told me on the way up. He talked of boxing and growing up in the late 30's and the early 40's. I enjoyed every second of it.
When we got home he went up to his bedroom and fell asleep. It had been a long day for him. He thanked me and told me how much he enjoyed himself.
Dad didn't sleep well for the next week. He would get up and wander around the house and keep mom up all night. He seemed much more confused then he was before we went. I felt a little bad about what Mom was going though but at the same time knew it was worth it.
Angie never did understood my love of movies or why I enjoyed taking Ethan so much. I was trying to share and recreate the times that I felt close to my Dad.
I wonder if 30 years hence if Ethan will be taking me to a movie for the last time. I wonder if he'll be taking his kids to a movie and remembering what it was like sitting next to his old man many years earlier.
And for anyone wondering Isaac and I share many moments together.
They usually involve causing Ethan great bodily harm, but they are our times together. And I can only hope 30 years from now Isaac will be causing great bodily harm to Ethan and remembering the times he did that with his old man.