My dad died twice — first, almost 35 years ago, when he no longer knew me or anyone in the family and, second, some five years after that, when the nursing home called and said he’d passed away. It was Alzheimer’s.
I didn’t talk with him in those five years. He’d gone away. Dad thought it was 1932 and he was in Kaycee, Wyoming. I have a photo of him standing in front of the general store where he worked. There was a young lady next to him — a girlfriend, perhaps? Dad always reminisced about his years in Wyoming. It was a happy time for him. They were the best years of his life. I was glad he’d found his way back.
John Diers is a Prior Lake resident who spent 40 years working in the transit industry and is the author of “Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul” and “St. Paul Union Depot.” To submit questions or topics for community columnists, email editor@plamerican.com.