Our dad spent a lot of time in rehab and in hospitals.  We visited him as often as we could, but for the most part we were 1200 miles away.  It broke our hearts that he had to spend endless days and nights in a hospital bed.  Luckily, our mother was able to visit every day – she would get there by lunch and stay through dinner.  Yet there was still a lot of time he was alone.  We wanted him to feel loved and supported.  Here are some things we tried:

• Dad loved music.  So we bought him a portable CD player and brought him his favorite CDs – like Neil Diamond, The Three Tenors and Patsy Cline.
• One key to success were the Bose noise-canceling headphones that drowned out the hospital background so he could escape into the music.
• Dad loved to garden, and when he lived up north he had a beautiful rose garden.   So we would send gorgeous bouquets of flowers to his room.  This also got the attention of the medical staff; they would come in and admire his latest display.
• We also brought dad a spray bottle of rose water to sprinkle on cold compresses we would apply to his forehead when he was warm.  To this day I can’t smell roses without thinking of him.
• Because he naturally missed his family, we made a large collage of family pictures and happy memories.  He had this hung in a prominent location and he would show all the nurses his family with great pride.
• Needless to say, we phoned everyday to let him know we were always thinking of him.
• Since it was sometimes hard to get comfortable in the hospital bed or chair, we would roll a towel to form a bolster to place behind his neck or lower back.  This is a little tip that I learned from my yoga classes.
• When our brother Michael visited, he sat for hours with dad, watching sports on TV and reading aloud the sports section of the newspaper.  Simple, sweet and stress free!
• And then there was the vibrating neck pillow.  This simple blue pillow that is $30 on Amazon took on a life of its own.  Somehow and in someway, it brought dad great comfort – he always kept it close.