1210: Take It Slow, Allan’s Parkinson’s Disease
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/18
I remember a dad once, Allan.
It was home, town.
He used to always show up at the events in town.
There were a whole series of events around and with him.
But never too directly, one time, he set me up for a date with his kid, gave me twenty Canadian bucks: “Everyone needs to get laid.”
Wow! Cool dads are often the most inappropriate dads.
They — the child of his — were good-looking.
I even smoked a cigarette, after the date, to impress this kid of his,
who was older than me.
Man: So hip, so cool, so… cough, cough-cough.
Intermittently, I found out from others.
He had bipolar disorder.
Later, he was estranged from his kids.
Still later, he was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
I hadn’t seen him in years.
Years, and years, later, I was working at a local restaurant as a dishwasher. I remember talking with one of the staffers who mentioned old Allan.
“Allan,” that Allan? My.
He had moved to the island, they said.
His disease had progressed, they said.
He died, a couple years prior, they said.
Allan was dead. No goodbyes.
He trained as a Jesuit priest, had a crisis of faith or something, developed more explicit bipolar, became a counselling psychologist, and died from the eventualities of Parkinson’s Disease, likely, estranged, for sure.
No goodbye for Allan was dead.
“Everyone needs to get laid.”
Well, everyone is laid to rest,
Allan, a dad, once.
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