大象传媒

From author and screenwriter, Frank Cottrell Boyce:

聽This time last year my dad - he鈥檚 got dementia - caught a virus that almost killed him.聽 We didn鈥檛 think he鈥檇 make it to last Christmas but he鈥檚 still here.聽 Bedridden, bewildered but in his own house. He disputes that by the way. He often claims to be in his childhood home - which was destroyed in the Blitz - sometimes he鈥檚 in Trieste, where he served in the army. Sometimes he鈥檚 in a gorgeous baroque lakeside tearoom which he says is on the hard shoulder of the M6. When the neighbours call he鈥檚 charming to their faces but outraged when they鈥檝e gone.聽 What are they doing here in Trieste? Why are they following me?聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽聽

Lots of us are having this experience - seeing a parent - someone you used to depend on - becoming dependent. It鈥檚 hard. But it鈥檚 got its sweetness too. When I brush his hair or his teeth, or shave him, there鈥檚 a new physical tenderness between us. He鈥檚 the child now. With a child鈥檚 imagination. When it goes wrong - when he thinks he鈥檚 been kidnapped by Columbian guerrillas - that鈥檚 horrible. But it can also be funny and moving and there鈥檚 a fierce courage there and a restless creativity in his attempts to make sense of what鈥檚 happening to him.

聽On Christmas Eve last year walking from the almost empty hospital multi storey to his ward I was trying to pray for him but didn鈥檛 know what to say. I just remembered the verse from Matthew - you must become like little children. A hard thing to do and a hard thing to watch. But then - there on the pedestrian walkway - I was overwhelmed by the thought - if this is hard for your Dad. Imagine how if felt when the father of all, the detonator of the Big Bang, the flinger of galaxies, the forger of planets, woke up in the hot, slippery, helpless body of a new born child, on a heap of hay in a stable.

聽What a thought it is - for Christians like me - a God who depends on you.聽A father who calls to you with that sweet intimate cry of dependence.