saw a ghost

at the wake Z needed a drink so we were leaving the front room towards the hallway & we stopped to let a little, old, frail, hunch-backed man pass. the man looked up at me & i was frozen, dazed, confused.

this person was my father.

there's no way, anyone could have prepared me for what i saw. we last saw him about 3 - 3 1/2 years ago & he's aged significantly.
i'm taller than him, i weigh more than him.
he's hunched over & has to pick his head up to look in front of him. you can see his shoulder blades thru his shirt, his pants are only held on by a belt sitting on his hip bones, his face is skeletal. if it wasn't for his eyes, i would not have recognized him at all.

we talked w/him outside & took a few pics w/him, but it if someone later were to tell me i dreamt all that, i would have believed them because it just didn't seem real.

my mom rode w/us from the church to the cemetery & we told her about it. i didn't see him at church but he was at the funeral & he did make his way over. he even talked w/my mom. or, i guess i should say she responded, she's always been very unapproachable to him (wonder where i get it from?).

i know my mom hasn't aged THAT well in the past 10 years, but my dad aged 20-25 years in the past 3. he said he's supposed to get some surgery done on his back, but i don't know that his frail body could recover from it.