

Seal Rock

My father
Remembering Seal Rock
My father Bill has retired in a beach community in Victoria, British Columbia called Cordova Bay. He lives with my step-mom Barb, who looks after him since he suffers from late-stage Alzheimer's. He has short term memory loss but still retains his cheerful and sometimes grumpy personality. He enjoys spending several hours a day sitting on his patio and staring out on Cordova Bay and across at the San Juan Islands. Each day as the tide goes out a rock island emerges in the middle of his view, which he calls Seal Rock. Bill thoroughly enjoys watching the seagulls, Blue Herons, and the occasional Bald Eagle land on the rock. He also walks on the beach when the tide is out and discovers treasures left by the sea, filling his beach house with them. When the tide comes in the island slowly fades like a memory. Yet there’s always an expectation that it will come back the next day. Soon, Bill and Barb are planning to move down the beach to a simpler and easier to navigate home. The view will be similar in many ways but Seal Rock won’t be part of it. I wonder what my father will think. Will he remember Seal Rock and ask why it isn’t part of his view anymore? Or will it fade from memory and the new view become what he knows? I know I’ll always remember him gazing out on Seal Rock as it changes with the tide.

Seagull feather

Morning light on the bay

Clam shell through ripples

More rocks

Dead crab

Bird on a rock

His house (3rd from left)

Saying hello

Seal Rock with heavy clouds

Wind changing the reflections

Low tide walking

Bird poo

Around 4 am

Curved driftwood

Clouds over Seal Rock

Crab with barnacles

Mount Baker peeping out

Bird sitting textures

Driftwood

Having trouble with his zipper

Rock with barnacles

Treasure hunting

Kelp on rock

Late afternoon at the bay

Sea gull feather

Dad from his view spot