Personal Narrative: My Father's Disability

618 Words2 Pages

In 2006, at the age of 41, my father was laid off by his machinist company. With my mother, brother, and I to support, we were forced to empty out my father’s retirement savings just to get by. Luckily, he later found another machinist job, but was sadly forced to quit in 2012 due to chronic back pain. This left my father to be put on disability at the young age of 47. Even this was not enough to get by, for my mother’s job as a medical assistant did not make a sufficient enough income either. My family was devastated. We were left to borrow money from relatives and friends, which most is still being paid back today. Luckily, in October 2015, my father won his disability claim, which has helped my family pay back our debts and support my father …show more content…

Aside from the financial troubles my family has faced with my father's disability, we have also been pushed down emotionally as my father is not the man he used to be. As a young child, my father would take my brother and I for walks through the woods as we bonded and learned about the surrounding wilderness. Today, I am lucky if my father makes it outside. Because of his pain, my father lays down in bed all day, the only way that my father can find some relief. This thus leads to many days where I may not even see my father, let alone spend time with him. If I am lucky, my father will be feeling good enough that we can spend some time together, but he is never in a happy mood. The severe pain my father has been in has left him being a very negative and sad man. Even when my father smiles, I know that it is only a mask. Because of all of the medication my father has taken to attempt to reduce his pain and the overall sadness the pain has put him in, my father has fallen into depression. In the rare occasions that my father is feeling good, he can still only stay in the house. Due to the pain of driving or being in a car, my father rarely leaves the

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