So why am I posting yet another sappy story about the potential of the Wii?Â
Because this one is about my family, so you're just going to have to shut up and read it! :)
Despite terrific and timely healthcare, my father is in the final days of his 9 year battle with Cancer. He's ending his life in a bed in our family room, where my mother and I take care of him. Needless to say, it's hard on all of us. One thing that has helped my mom through it is the DS. Thanks to Clubhouse games we regularily play Grid Attack, Bowling, Chinese Checkers and Billiards. She said it went a long way to hleping her get through the 22 days that my dad spent in the hospital when the tumors first compressed his spinal cord.
Our second DS was originally purchased for my dad on Fathers day, but the downhill journey that began the next week left his hands a bit too unsteady for the stylus, though he still plays the occasional game of solitare. He has the TV, and he's never alone, but it can still be pretty monotonus, and without something to engage him, he's regularily somewhere between awake and asleep.
Well yesterday my friend Jason came to visit. And he brought his Wii. We hooked it up for him, made him a Mii, and took to Tennis. He wasn't all that good, but got the jist. After that came bowling. We slid him to the side of the bed so he could have free range of motion with his arm, and I'll be damned if he didn't love it! He even got 2 strikes. Jay really only bought the thing for Zelda, so he let us keep it until Prime comes out.Â
We had two games of bowling today. Both Dad's idea. And while he's not that great at it, getting to play a game with my dad at this point in his illness is enough to make my eyes water. We're going to have a tournament tonight with my mom joining in. Tomorrow my sister is coming over, and I'm sure we'll do the same then.Â
I realize that Nintendo is just a faceless corporation like any other, but I know that when I look back on my fathers life and death, I'll have fond memories of late night Grid attack games with my mom in the hospital, my father's ball always curving to the left, and hearing him say "Wiiiii" after his first strike.
And that concludes my typical sappy Wii/DS story