Visiting Papa In The Lone Star State

Good afternoon my dears,

This past weekend we flew from Charlotte, NC to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to see my hubby's ninety-two year old maternal grandfather, affectionately known as Papa.

Grandee and Papa.

Papa

Arthur Edwin Dillon

born 1924, in Oregon

married for sixty-one years on November 14th 1953 to

Grandee

Marlene Joann Jungers

born 1932, in North Dakota

died 2015, in Texas

They have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren

Here's a little journal of what we did...

Thursday

Papa has Alzheimer's so he lives with his middle child, at his home in Arlington, TX, so a few of us flew into Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to spend a few days visiting.

That evening, we went to a Bon Jovi rock concert. Honestly, I don't really know all that much about Bon Jovi, besides the song Livin' On A Prayer, which came out the year I was born, but, my hubby's eldest cousin is his biggest fan, and invited us along.

Friday

We spent the day visiting with Papa. Because of his Alzheimer's he didn't necessarily remember meeting us the day before. Cory and I were looking through years of family calendars with him and as we pointed out all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we'd ask "who's this?" Some he remembered, some he didn't.

We pointed at a picture of the pool, and he said:

"I always had to clean it, the kids wouldn't help."

We got a lot of his responses on video, which we'll have to put together, someday.

Cory, his eldest cousin, and Papa.

That afternoon we had Tex-Mex for lunch, and BBQ for dinner. Oh my goodness, we were waddling by the end of the day, and no, that's not an understatement.

Cory's uncle, his eldest cousin (her hubby was taking the picture), me, Cory, and Papa.

Saturday

On Saturday, we visited Cory's uncle's wife's family. They got married last Fall, so we haven't met all her family yet. She has a large family (each parent is one of thirteen siblings) and some were there to celebrate her granddaughter's 9th birthday, so we visited over coffee and a slice of cake.

Afterwards, we went to the Fort Worth stockyards to stroll around, get some BBQ for dinner, and later that evening to see a rodeo. Cory and I sat besides papa in the disabled section, right upfront, and he stayed awake during the whole show. Sadly, one of the bull riders got seriously injured, so I had that in the back of my mind, also recently two bucking horses were killed after running into the walls at the rodeo. I was thinking, and praying for them all that night.

Papa and Cory at the Rodeo

Sunday

On our last day, we checked out of our hotel, and had lunch at BFF's. We visited for awhile before heading to the airport to catch our flight back home, sweet home.

It was good to see everyone, and to finally visit more of Texas. Have you ever been?

Have a blessed weekend,

~ Kiki Nakita ~

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