The end of an era...

Recently, my dad asked me to attend a meeting with him at work where we discussed his Disability Leave of Absence and some other details regarding his future with the company he has worked with for last 33 years!  He has worked there for longer than I've been alive.  That's a freakin' LONG TIME!  I remember going to work with my dad on a few occasions when I was a kid.  I don't know how many times he explained his job to me before I finally began to understand what it was that he did.  Honestly, I still don't know the full spectrum, but I think I was a sophomore in high school before I even understood the basics.  I'm not a science or engineering person in any sense, so he would start explaining and I would get lost in the first 5 seconds.  One thing I remembered about going to work with him was, as we would approached the plant, you could see these huge cooling towers...they were magnificent and kind of scary-looking to me as a kid - they still are, even after all these years. Miller Steam Plant is owned and operated by Alabama Power.  They burn mainly coal, but also natural gas and fuel oil to produce steam.  The steam is used to power their generating units.  The units generate million of megawatt-hours of electrical power for Alabama.  I won't get into all their emissions, etc, etc.  I took these pictures knowing it's probably the last time anyone in our family will see these massive, man-made creations.  

As I was helping my Dad and Jacque pack up his office, I was consciously aware that the situation could have been very different today.  I could have been packing his office up without him.  I am so grateful that we were able to get my Dad to the hospital in time because he was so very sick.  Dad found a enlarged copy of a picture in his desk from the early days of working at the plant.  Scrolled across the top of the page in magic marker was "Magnificent 7".  Above the head of each man was a number in the order they had left the company.  With tears in his eyes, my dad wrote "End of an Era" above his head in the picture as he said, "I always said I'd be the last to go."  He's ok with not going back to work.  Even if he wasn't, he doesn't have much choice because the doctors won't give him medical clearance to return.  Dad is doing good.  He had an appointment with the Neurologist earlier in the week and they will be starting him on a new medication.  Although the inflammation from the Hepatic Encephalopathy has improved, there is still a continuing deterioration of the brain tissue so they are hoping to stop that so that his memory loss will stop getting worse.  Prayers would still be very appreciated!