Back in NH

I arrived in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire shortly after 12 this morning. In case you haven’t been on the blog of late, my father is getting brain surgery for his severe Parkinson’s disease tomorrow. This is an operation Dad and the family talked about when I was here visiting in May. We figured in a few years he may have to seriously consider the risky surgery. But recently Dads symptoms have taken a turn for the worst, so bad that most days he can hardly function. So just as fast as we all learned about this surgery Dad is getting it tomorrow.

Today I had the good fortune of spending some quality time with Dad. With severe Parkinson’s there are terrible days and not as terrible days. Mom described Dads condition this morning as his best in months. Perhaps it’s the excitement of me being here – who knows – but the important thing was that the two of us took advantage of his positive energy.

I drove us downtown and I got a fishing license. Then I took us straight to the family cottage where I’ve fished my entire life. I set up my 5-wieght Ross while dad worked his way down to the docks with his cane. We both made it down about the same time and I made a dozen or so casts with a beautiful smallmouth bass popper. Dad has not been able to cast for about two years so he kicked back and watched.

Fishing was lousy around the cottage. I caught a rock bass and had a few hungry pumpkinseed sunfish tried to fit my smallmouth popper in their mouth. After an hour of that Dad was still doing well so I drove us out to some ponds and small lakes on the outskirts of Wolfeboro. Not much was happening on the small waters either, however, it only takes one fish to make a great day and this nice little largemouth was him.

I’d love to have kept running all over casting on the little ponds and lakes of New Hampshire spending time with Dad, but by 1 PM he was shaking beyond belief. I got him home and he was so bad off I had to lift him from the car and almost carry him in the house. In a way it was a sign that no matter how wonderful our time was this morning, Dad needs this surgery.

Tonight we arrived at the Days In about two miles from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. At 5:45 AM we’ll be checking Dad in. It will be a long day tomorrow, but I have a lot of confidence Dad won’t be watching me fish in the future, he’ll be fishing too.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing