Sad

My father is ill again, too ill to come to my graduation.  He is afraid it's cancer again.  I know there are other cancers, but I am awfully glad I no longer have to worry about this one.

He has told me not to come home to Tennessee without a doctorate. I am month away from that, so I am obliging him.  I feel far away-- from the South, from my family.  And today I feel like a month is a long time from completion of this thing.  

He sounded so deeply, deeply sad.