Yesterday, I lost my father. He had been battling Parkinson’s disease for years, and in the end, it was the cruel combination of his physical decline and blindness that finally took him from us. It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to lose someone so deeply loved. But amidst the pain, there’s something I’ll carry with me forever: a note my sister found in his old notebook.
His handwriting was shaky, more so than ever, as Parkinson’s had stolen much of his dexterity. His words, too, were often hard to read, but these lines were clear enough to capture a moment of his unyielding spirit. The note was written in a time when his world was becoming increasingly smaller, and his body no longer obeyed his commands, but his mind remained as sharp as ever. Despite the loss of his sight and the tremors that shook his hands, he had one thing that never wavered—his will.
The note read:
“Go for it! No time is better than now.”
At first, I didn’t understand. Why would he have written this? But as I thought about it more, I realized it was a promise to himself. A promise to live fully, despite the constraints of his body. Even as Parkinson’s took away his ability to do the things he loved, even as his world grew dimmer, he still promised to push forward, to “go for it”—to face each day with whatever strength he had left.
In those final years, my father never stopped trying. Whether it was through the difficult exercise regimen recommended by his doctors or the small triumphs he celebrated, like getting out of bed on his own, he never gave up. The note, simple as it was, was the essence of his character—one that endured to the very end.
The promise he made wasn’t just a reflection of his own will; it was a lesson for me and for anyone who reads this. Life can be unfair, and we will face challenges, sometimes in forms we never expected. But the strength to keep going, to “go for it every day,” no matter how small the victories or how tough the battle, is a decision we all must make for ourselves.
Moral Lesson:
The note my father left behind is a powerful reminder that resilience is not defined by the physical challenges we face but by the strength of our will. Life may take away many things, but as long as we have our mind and our heart, we have the power to choose how we live. The greatest promise we can make to ourselves is to keep going, to pursue life with as much courage and passion as we can muster, no matter the obstacles. “Go for it! No time is better than now.”