I quit my job to travel with my dad. He died 10 days later.

The author quit his job to travel with his dad.

Courtesy of the author

One year ago, I left my job to travel with my father. Neither of us had taken a vacation in years; he was a widower living alone, and I was a journalist who had prioritized my career for 25 years.A trip was something we had discussed after my mother unexpectedly died from cancer on Christmas 2021. My father wanted to visit her family overseas to say "thank you" and "goodbye" in person. He was slowing down physically, and we agreed we should go together. Additionally, it would be nice for me to travel without having to check my email and alerts for breaking news.He had lost significant weightI drove from Los Angeles to San Francisco to meet my father and plan our next year of adventures. I immediately noticed something was wrong. He had lost considerable weight since I last saw him a few months prior. He told me he had food poisoning from a bad salad he had eaten weeks before."Food poisoning doesn't last for weeks," I replied.

The author's dad died of pancreatic cancer.

Courtesy of the author