I did it.

It's been on my mind so much lately. I've been procrastinating, then worrying that I may be too late, but still procrastinating. It's not every day that you make plans to dismantle a parent's life. I would think it would be like "taking care of their affairs" after they die, but he's alive. ( And I am so glad about that.)

Step one is done. Sorta. I put down a deposit at an assisted living center for a month long residency for my dad. All the paperwork is not done. Heck, I don't even know the bottom figure, but at least the process has been started. And confirmed with the deposit. And when I left that place, I felt much better.

I now have a time frame that we can use to go to Florida, pack his things, get rid of things, clean, put his place up for sale, get home, unpack, sort, store, put in the house, and on and on. The next steps, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Two people from the center will come and meet my dad and assess in which area he should stay. I have my opinion about that, but I do have to be honest. He did take off one day and I didn't know where he was for 15 minutes - the longest, most frantic minutes I had experienced in a long time. And there was the time that I was "cooking" aka "burning" and when I came out from the other end of the house where I was ironing, the kitchen, living room, and family room were thick in smoke. Scary. Where was my dad? Just sitting in his chair watching TV, oblivious to it all. Double Scary.

Anyway, I will leave it up to them to decide. Yes, when I left the place, I felt better. And yes, it was so hard to do. And yes, when I left that place and got in my car, I cried.