In memory of my earthly father...The grace-filled years

My father was a loving husband to my mother; every morning he would read the scriptures to my mother and they would do their own worship and prayer routine in the mornings before they head out for the day either to visit friends, grandchildren or cell-group meetings in church and those were the happiest moments of their lives and I am sure those were the memories they carried with them wherever they went.

They were so full of the joy of the Lord that it became impactful and during their respective memorial services during the wakes, many of the elderly folks whose lives were impacted came up to my brothers and I and shared their testimonies. Never a moment did they complained of being overloaded with responsibilities; in fact my father went all out to play bigger roles as the years went by and up until he was 78 and his health caught up with him.

My mother became wheelchair bound about seven years ago after a severe fall at home and probably some minor stoke which impacted the use of her lower limbs. And it was during this time that it became rather trying on my father being a caregiver and with all those responsibilities in church. His regular schedules had to be adjusted and it was unsettling for him after so many years and I believe it was around this time that he started to develop lapses of memory loss which eventually led to his dimentia sickness.

He started to miss church on Sundays because of his memory challenges and mom's mobility issues and being dry in the Word compounded his sickness. Initially Alice and I made it our Sunday routine to pick him up from my brother's home and send them to church along with their Indonesian maid and the wheelchair and then we would attend 2nd service at New Creation Church while my brother would be responsible to fetch them home after their church service. We wanted to do this so that they could still enjoy their worship with the family of St James Church (Cantonese Congregation).

However, this unfortunately did not last long as my eldest brother was caught up in his church (at Church of Ascension where he was the Vicar's Warden) and could not make it in time to fetch them home and my parents were trying to be creative and started to make their own transport arrangements and almost got lost on the way home (as narrated by their maid). So out of concern for their own safety, we advised them against going to church since no alternatives could be found then.

Of course, the next best thing to do was to get in touch with their pastor and request for home visits with communion but these were only scheduled once a month. Nevertheless, we felt it was better than not at all.