Actress Amy Huberman has opened up about her beloved father’s illness – saying she feels like it has “robbed” him of time with his grandchildren.
Her father Harold was diagnosed with Parkinson's and now he lives in the care of a nursing home.
Amy opened up about father’s illness – saying she feels like his ill health has robbed him of time with his grandkids and how not being able to see him during lockdown separated her loving family unit.
The mum-of-three said: “The one thing that has kind of affected me the most in the last few years is my dad’s illness and his ill health and again because he has been such a huge – like every parent – a huge part of my life and a real foundation of me as a person.
“He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s probably nine years ago at this stage and he’s had really bad health over the last two years, which has been really sh*t because of Covid. He is in full time care at the moment. I haven’t been able to see him a huge amount, but we can now but that’s been really hard.
“It has separated my family unit. Because it had to. It’s been a real slow drawn-out process where his ill health has robbed him of time at this particular time with his grandkids. So that has been my no laughing matter.
“I’ve had this luxury time with my kids and my husband and that has been lovely, but the flipside is of being robbed of time with them when I feel like there isn’t endless time left. So that has been really, really hard and I get so emotional about it,” she told Doireann Garrihy on the Laughs of Your Life podcast.
The author admitted she doesn’t know whether it is better to deal with the inevitability of his illness now or later - but she said her father is still “a messer” and makes everyone laugh in the care home.
“I feel like me dealing with his illness to come is in the post, I know it’s there and I don’t know which is better – you deal with it, and it is not a shock and that is sh*t because it’s infiltrating your time. The fact that he is still here. He’s still the messer in there. He’s confined to a wheelchair and his movement is restricted.
“He still makes everybody laugh up there. Even in my dad’s ill health, he still has this gorgeous sense of humour. Even now with all the gags, he still says them. Sometimes he gets confused about stuff but my dad wants to laugh.”
Read more: RTE receives thirteen complaints over Tommy Tiernan Show which featured interview with Amy Huberman
Read more: Amy Huberman to release first children's book this year
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