Current Events > One of the hardest things about having a sick relative is how people react

(+) Yeah! (+)

I imagine it's the same thing if you're very sick, but I've not been in that position before.

But basically every day someone asking "How's your dad?" and then the same "yeah he's ok, just baby steps", and then their pained expression and the awkward way they try to make you feel better and want to keep talking about it. I'd sometimes just rather they didn't ask.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is people just being nice and caring, and I appreciate that and it's lovely. But since I can't do anything about the colossal stroke he had, he will never recover his full motor capacity, his dementia will progressively get worse and he will likely die in the next couple of years, what am I meant to say? "Yeah he's not good actually. He can't control his bladder, he can't go to the toilet himself, he forgets where he is and sleeps most of the day. He'll never walk again. He can't read anymore, and as an academic that fact is particularly hard for everyone. The only thing he wants to do now is watch tv. In fact it's like I lost my dad already but there's still a living breathing person there who's sometimes like dad was." But people don't want to hear that.

Woof. I needed to get that out.

Sorry about your dad. I've been there, it's fucking rough.

That's why I don't tell people about stuff I don't want to talk about.