Meredith BellHost
"I'm not helpless, you know." My father spoke these words to me 15 years ago when I was working in my parents' yard, pruning shrubs and cleaning around the beds.

At this point in his life, Dad was almost 90 and no longer steady on his feet, so my husband and I were there to help.

He was a master gardener and all his adult life, he'd spent much of his free time planting and maintaining the flowers, shrubs, and trees in every place we ever lived.

People would actually stop by as they drove by to compliment him on the beautiful landscape, and sometimes they even took pictures.

But in his later years, it became impossible for him to perform the activities that had given his life some of his greatest pleasures.

So on this particular day, it must have been hard for him to watch his daughter, who had nowhere near the skills he possessed, perform tasks that he'd be able to do so easily.

In my attempt to do things that I thought were too strenuous or even dangerous for him, I was actually robbing him of the opportunity to contribute, to do what he could still do.

"I'm not helpless, you know." My father spoke these words to me 15 years ago when I was working in my parents' yard, pruning shrubs and cleaning around the beds.

At this point in his life, Dad was almost 90 and no longer steady on his feet, so my husband and I were there to help.

He was a master gardener and all his adult life, he'd spent much of his free time planting and maintaining the flowers, shrubs, and trees in every place we ever lived.

People would actually stop by as they drove by to compliment him on the beautiful landscape, and sometimes they even took pictures.

But in his later years, it became impossible for him to perform the activities that had given his life some of his greatest pleasures.

So on this particular day, it must have been hard for him to watch his daughter, who had nowhere near the skills he possessed, perform tasks that he'd be able to do so easily.

In my attempt to do things that I thought were too strenuous or even dangerous for him, I was actually robbing him of the opportunity to contribute, to do what he could still do.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.