Today is Father’s Day, June 21st, 2020. In almost exactly a month, it will have been three years since my own father died. In 2016 he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and suffered through it for a little over a year before he died. I’d like to say that he fought bravely until the end, like we all like to say when we talk about people with terminal illnesses. But can I say he really fought until the end, when it was more so he was forced to suffer through every day until he met his end? He was stripped of everything that made him William Yep; he could not eat, cook, work, provide for his family, speak, play basketball, visit his grandmother, or mess around with his computers. Hell, he couldn’t even lift his own head. He was totally dependent on his wife and children, doomed to sit in a wheelchair with eye tracking technology to communicate, forced to wear a bib to catch his drooling because he had absolutely no control over his muscles. His breathing got weaker and weaker as his lungs gave out, and eventually they gave out. So how can I say that he fought so bravely, when it wasn’t glorious at all? When he only suffered? How do you fight a disease with a 100% mortality rate, 0% recovery rate, and no approved treatment or cure? They literally tell you that you just have to live with it until it’s time’s up. There is nothing romantic about losing a father at the age of sixteen either. People tell me that I’m brave. Brave for what? In the same way he wasn’t fighting so much as forced to live through his suffering, so am I. I have no choice but to keep on going despite the pain and hole in my life that he left behind. My dad was a kind person. He gave a lot, he donated money to family and charities. So in his memory this Father’s Day, I sewed 50 masks myself and donated them to Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, the place he spent his final days. I can only hope to strive to be as selfless and giving as him. I’ll never know for sure, but I wish he’d be proud of me. Perhaps I can do some good in the world; that truly is my only goal in the life. If I can help even just one person at once, that makes me happy. Happy Father’s Day, Daddy. I miss you so, so much. (at Forest Lawn) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtUo8fhV7q/?igshid=yt5y6861da2g
