For the Love of Dad
JIM KENNEDY, 39, left, prays with his father, William Hammond Kennedy, 73, and Elijah Kennedy, 8. The Kennedys often end each night together in prayer, which also serves as a chance for them to come together as a family. William Kennedy has been disabled since he suffered a stroke in 1991.
Jim later pauses from his reading, looks to his right and stares at his father, then leans over and touches him gently on the forehead as Elijah watches.
“For me, not meeting my dad until I was 14 — I wanted better for Elijah,” Jim said. “I wanted him to know more about his identity. I wanted him to know what was before him.”
Jim, an account executive at Arrowhead Printing in Bloomfield, is raising Elijah as a single parent. He is also caring for his ill father in their Plymouth home, with the assistance from VNA Health Care. It’s a radical change from the hard-drinking, self-focused life Jim once lived, but it’s a change he has embraced.
His focus now is more on his family. “It’s grounded me more,” said Jim, 39, who began taking care of his father in 1995. William, 73, has needed assistance since suffering a stroke in 1991.
“We’ve spent more time together with me as the caretaker, than with him as the caretaker,” Jim said of his father, who was absent for much of his childhood. “I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to spend time with him after all those lost years.”
Though Jim is the center of the family unit, Elijah and his grandfather have their own relationship, one that William clearly enjoys. His speech is limited from the stroke, but he always smiles when Elijah enters the room.
“Elijah is his life,” said Jim. “The first thing in the morning it’s, ‘Where’s Elijah?’ The first thing in the afternoon is, ‘Where’s Elijah?’ The first thing in the night is, ‘Where’s Elijah?’ It’s never me,” said Jim as he smiled and laughed.
Jim says it can be exhausting at times keeping the family unit going alone, but he rarely complains or seems to grow tired.
“I get strength out of them being together — that’s what keeps me going,” said Jim. “This house is going to come and go, but we will have these memories forever.”
Contact Ross Taylor at rtaylor@courant.com.
Taking care of his father has become a way of life for Jim, who is shaving his father, William. He’s done such tasks for more than a decade.
Sitting with his son Elijah, below at left, Jim talks with his soccer team at Hancock Field in Plymouth. Jim is the head coach of his son’s Terryville U-9 (under 9) Tigers soccer team. He is also assistant coach of his son’s baseball team. In photo below at right, Jim reads to his son in a very relaxed mode.
