Per Cod

WHO WOULD HAVE KNOWN?

I have a good friend, with whom I share my first name.

Per’s grandfather Ole started to get a little “silly” a few weeks ago, as sometimes happens when people reach his age. Ole’s been a working man all his life; small farm, fishing, freight boats, carpentry and house building. “You didn’t choose your jobs back then,” he says, “the jobs chose you.”

I remember him as we grew up, next door to our summer house, Per’s grandfather was a kind and gentle man who let us kids do pretty much as we pleased. Jumping in the hay in his barn, or “borrowing” his rowing boat for a day; he let us know when we did something wrong, but never yelled or screamed or even looked angry.

As late as this summer he was out on his little boat fishing for hours on his own, in sun or rain, wind or calm. But that came to an end a couple of weeks ago when his 86 year old veins didn’t seem to want to carry as much blood too his brain as they’d used too and he started to forget stuff more often; little things at first, keys, TV remote, put coffee in the machine and so on. But then one morning his wife found him on all fours on the floor; “where’s my knife, woman” he said; he was off to war.

The next day his daughter, Per’s mom, helped pack his bag and drive him to hospital and then a nursing home. Time had finally come, I guess, to get back some of what he’d been giving all these years. I helped out this weekend, moving some stuff from his old place, so
he’d feel more at home where he’s now. Isn’t that easy you know, when you don’t know the place or the people, and the man you share room with is a thief and a bandit (why else would he be there in your room?).

In his nightstand was a letter, not two months old, from the Museum of the Home Front. They asked him please, to allow them to record and show the world what he’d done in the war.

Per’s mom was disturbed and surprised to find the letter. “He’s never been to war,” she said. “He told me so many times. There must be some mistake.”

But there was no mistake; he did his bit and then some. He just didn’t think it was much to talk about, I guess.

His family would never have known, had it not been for Alzheimer’s