Life, Mortality, and Family Hobbies

My father's mortality appeared to me for the first time last week. He had a cold, which by itself, isn't a concern, but it coincided with a gout flare-up. Every motion was painful for him, making it impossible for him to do even simple tasks. And because of the cold, he couldn't treat the gout right away, so he was limited to pretty much just sitting there in pain.

Battling both afflictions at the same time showed me just how frail a human life, particularly my father's, is. And for the first time, my dad looked very much frail.

I had brought him persimmons to dry; one of dad's hobbies is making hoshigaki, persimmons dried by peeling and hanging from their stems and massaged every few days. At the moment, this particular hobby isn't possible for him.

So just for my dad, last night I peeled several persimmons, tied strings around the stems, and hung them from the kitchen window.