After my sophomore year of college, my father and I took my aging grandfather on a week-long road trip to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed in a beautiful old hotel on Lake Yellowstone and did day trips around the park, visiting my sister one day, going to Old Faithful another, watching bison and grizzly bears and wolves, etc. It was wonderful and beautiful, and it is one of the best times my dad and I have ever had. Unfortunately, my grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer’s at the time, and he thought he had traveled to Yellowstone not as a vacation and a chance to look at natural beauty in the springtime, but as a trip to doctors for yet another round of tests. I’ll never forget his surprise at seeing my aunt come out of our house when we got back from the trip (she had flown with him because he wasn’t safe to fly alone). It was heartbreaking. Continue reading →